Spinning Bottles
by Allison Elder
Summary: Sequel to: Kicking Buckets. 'I feel so empty inside...like I'll never be whole again.' 'Maya...a part of life is learning to move on. Please don't turn me away...' 'I'm sorry, Siri...I just don't know if I can find the strength to go on...'
1. Prologue: Look at Me

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.**

_**Alright, kiddies, you can stop biting your fingernails down to the bone waiting for this! To those of you who reviewed, praising me and such, I must say this: Thank you. Those of you who write your own stories know exactly how much each good review means to an author. I am no exception. If I seem snappy, I apologize. It is my nature, and I cannot change it. And now, without further adieu, I give you Spinning Bottles, the next installment in Hermione's life.**_

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

"**Learn from the Past**

**Live in the Present**

**Look to the Future" Maya Gurgeon**

**Spinning Bottles**

**Prologue**

_I have traveled both far and wide in my short musical career with Snake's Halo. Those were some of the happiest times of my life, though they were set in the middle of a war. I can recall the smile on Lucius' face and the twinkle in his eye as he set eyes on his beloved Narcissa...and I can recall my own happiness to meet the mischievous chocolate stare of my own beloved. The very thought of him makes my blood rush even now...now that I know that he has died._

_Or has he?_

_I can no longer seem to separate dream from reality as it pertains to the life that I lived a month ago...though to me the time-span was actually that of four years. I always knew that I could not remain where I was. To be honest, I thought myself dead. Now that I know I'm not dead, I do not know how to proceed. Albus has given me a job for as long as I may need it, to reorient myself. For obvious reasons, I cannot simply finish school as I should. I have already been through my Seventh Year at Hogwarts, and to be quite frank, I've no great desire to relive it._

_I would see Lily's glittering green eyes in Ginny's brown ones...James' laughter on Harry's face. Draco? How would I survive with the son, knowing that I once knew the father's deepest secrets? Knowing that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were not only acquaintances of mine...but my Godsons as well? Perhaps, if this was all, I would be able to survive. But to attend Professor Severus Snape's potions class...when I **tutored** him in potions? When I was the one to give him his ever-so-famous first-year induction speech? And Remus...oh Remus! How he must hate me, now! Knowing that I could have prevented the entire thing long before it happened! Knowing that, even if I hadn't told a soul, I could have murdered Pudge in his sleep?_

_The anguish tears at my heart, just thinking of it._

_...And then there is Bellatrix. Bellatrix Lestrange. The woman who killed my Heart. Albus tells me that the wretched woman bragged openly about defeating me. I daresay that the ink has yet to dry on this entry in this particular journal entry- inside of the journal which I purchased, incidentally, only yesterday- and I still live. Take that, Bellatrix._

_Sirius...oh, Sirius. My love. Would that the dream I had the day before my accident were truth. That you lived, despite it all! Albus has "borrowed" the memory of your death from Harry. I have viewed it in its entirity...I wish that I had been there to guard your back that day, my beloved. Mark my words, Sirius Nazerus Black. Lestrange will rue the day that she lifted wand against the beloved of Maya Gurgeon. This I swear, on my wand, on my magic, on my honor as a witch._

_**Maya Gurgeon**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Harry, Ron, and Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor Table to the din of students calling welcomes. They had skipped the Welcoming Feast the night before to finish Hermione's story, and now they were met with calls of merriment all around. Harry sat by Neville, Ron, and across from Seamus and Dean.

"Hey. Who's the new Defense teacher?" Harry asked Neville.

"We don't know." Neville shrugged.

"Dumbledore didn't introduce the new Defence teacher." Seamus said, shrugging. The hall fell silent as Dumbledore stood up.

"Students...I would like to introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor." He motioned with one age-withered hand and a middle-aged professor whose face- though wrinkled- was very familiar. "Professor Grant." There was a smattering of applause as the woman stood quietly, giving a reserved smile and nodding in acknowledgement. Sitting down, she turned back to her dinner.

"What do we have first?" Harry asked. "We don't have Hermione here to remind us, remember..."

"Right." Ron said quietly.

"Where is Hermione, anyway?" Dean asked. Harry and Ron looked at each other sadly for a long time before turning back to their dormmates. "Nevermind..." Dean said quietly, seeing the other two's expressions.

"It's better not to know." Ron said, quietly. "It's a long, sad story."

"Alright, Mate..." Seamus said, quietly.

"So. What do we have first?" Harry asked Ron again. Ron pulled out his timetable and studied it.

"Defense."

"Great! We'll see if Professor Grant is any good." Harry grinned.

"Right." Ron grinned, beginning to eat.

As they walked into the Defense Classroom, they stopped short. "Do we have the right class?" Harry asked.

"I don't know...it almost looks like..._History_...to me." Ron said. Inside of the classroom, there were paintings of famous wizards surrounding the room- starting with Merlin Himself- and ending with a picture of Tom Riddle. Glancing at their time-tables again, they shrugged and sat down quietly as the Slytherins began trickling in.

Draco walked in with Blaise and their friend Pansy Parkinson. Glancing around, Draco looked at the Gryffindors and moved over to them. "Potter. Weasley." He nodded cordially before glancing around again. "Professor Binns finally retire or something?"

"If only." Harry said. "How's it going, Malfoy?" There was a bit of an uneasy, unspoken truce between the boys since they'd found out that they shared a Godmother.

"It's going." Malfoy said, glancing around at the looks that they were getting. "My godfather's been unnaturally...nice...lately." He warned. "That usually means that he's out for blood."

"Thanks for the warning." Harry's voice was low. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Good." Malfoy said. "See you Harry. Weasley." He nodded to Ron, who nodded in return, and moved off with Pansy and Blaise. As soon as the last student was sitting, their teacher swooped in. Her robes were a dark blue, emphasizing what must have once been beautiful brown hair. Now, however, it was a pale tan, if that, from the grayness that had seeped into it. She looked out across the room and seemed to be imagining something, for she smiled faintly as she continued down the stairs to her desk.

"Right, then." She said, softly. Her voice had that same quality that the Professors McGonagall and Snape had...the ability to silence entire crowds simply by speaking. "Let us first take roll. I do not know all of you, as your other teachers might, so bear with me." She lifted a sheet of parchment from her desk. "Please raise your hand as I call out your name. Lavender Brown." Lavender raised her hand silently in the back of the room.

"Hermione Granger." Silence engulfed the room. Harry and Ron had gone white as sheets, as had Draco- though that was his normal pallor. "No Hermione? Okay." The professor made a flourishing checkmark on the paper and moved on down the list.

Once the role was finished, the teacher tapped it with her wand and it disappeared in a puff of glittering smoke. She then sat on her desk. "What all did you learn last year?" When nobody spoke up, she nodded silently before standing up. "I suppose I'll just have to test you, then. Wands out, class...and stand up so that I can clear some space." When nobody moved, she sighed and drew her own wand, making a quick gesture. The tables and chairs disappeared in a similar puff of glittering smoke, leaving the class to land rather painfully on the stone floor.

"I want you all to show me what you remember from your previous years in a miniature duel. I will be moving among you, studying the way you do things. Once I've determined where your learning has been left off, we will spend the remainder of this week doing a quick review of previous years, and next week, we will begin moving on to some new material. Any questions?" When nobody moved, she nodded. "Right, then. Begin."

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

That night, Harry and Ron looked around their common room before sitting down to miserably begin their homework. They would normally never be caught dead doing homework on the same day that it was given, but as Harry had pointed out to Ron during dinner, they no longer had Hermione to bail them out if they got behind. Thus, they missed the fact that their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was calmly knocking on the door to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"Enter." Came the soft call from behind the door, and the woman stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. "Ah, Maya. How was your first day of classes?"

"Albus. I don't see why I have to remain in hiding." The woman complained, reaching up and pulling her wig and mask off, looking at him unhappily.

"My dear, we agreed that it would be prudent for you to remain unknown until we were certain that Voldemort had no knowledge of your little...journey." He was, of course, speaking of the trip into the past that the witch had taken- quite unexpectedly- not a month before. By her reckoning, however, the trip had lasted for very nearly four years...ending just before her younger Godson's first birthday. Upon her return to her own time, the young woman had been unable to resume normal studies with her classmates for obvious reasons. After all, it was hardly a normal occurance when a seventeen year old disappeared in August, just to reapper in September at the age of twenty-one.

"But the fact that I can't even tell Severus or Lucius!" She protested, speaking of her two surviving oldest friends. "Or Harry and Ron! For God's sake, Albus!"

"Someone's coming." The headmaster warned. Brown eyes widened as she lifted the mask over her carefully pinned up hair, settling the wig and the mask into place moments before Severus Snape burst in. "Ah, Severus." Albus said, smiling. "What can I do for you?"

"I have several students in detention, Albus." The potions professor snapped, his black eyes narrowed. They were just as she remembered...only older, crueller. She was truly back.

"Oh?"

"Indeed. The little wretches thought that it would be amusing to explode four cauldrons simultaneously." Dumbledore's smile fell from his face, the twinkle in his eye winking out. He felt the witch beside him shift, and he fought to keep from smiling in amusement at the dark look that slid across her brow before she regained control. She was, indeed, the young witch who had turned Hogwarts into a battleground in her seventh year when she'd realized who had killed the man that she loved.

"I see. I am sure that you are more than capable of taking care of this, Severus...why are you coming to me?"

"A few of the students, I could easily handle, Albus. However, there are ten of them in the detention."

"Ten?" Albus asked, keeping his voice mild...the surprise in it barely noticeable.

"Yes, Albus. Ten." Severus sneered. "The four whose potions exploded and the six who sabotaged them."

"I see." Albus settled back in his chair and looked at the witch still standing silently to the side. As if his gaze was a magnet, Severus found himself following the Headmaster's look to the mysterious Defense Professor, who had her arms crossed and an expression of strict neutrality on her face. She almost looked like...but no. Severus forced himself to stop considering it. She had died. He was only jumpy because of Hermione Granger's disappearance, the month before.

"I will be glad to take a few of the students off of Professor Snape's hands." The voice was familiar as well...but no, it was too high to have been Maya's.

"Excellent, Helen." Albus smiled like a delighted child and clapped. "It's settled then. When do the students have detention, Severus?"

"Every Monday through Friday for the next two weeks. Will this be a problem?" Severus had noted Helen's slight shift of weight.

"Of course not." The soft inflections were filled with amusement this time. "I shall tell the House Elves to prepare a room in accord to their detention. If you'll excuse me...Albus, Professor Snape." She nodded to each of them.

"Severus." The Head of Slytherin found himself correcting her, automatically. She stopped, her brown eyes sweeping along him in an appraising look.

"Severus." She replied, sweeping out the doorway. Once it had closed behind her, Albus turned to the man standing before his desk.

"Has there been any word on Bellatrix Lestrange's activities?" Albus asked. "Has she indicated any knowledge of Hermione's disappearance?"

"None." Severus said, rubbing his temples...the only sign of his agitation. "Albus...are you certain Maya will return? It's been sixteen years, for Heaven's sake!"

"Nothing is certain, Severus." Albus said, quietly. "However, the letter that she sent both myself and Sirius left no indication whatsoever that she would not see us again. I find it hard to believe that a duellist as accomplished as Maya Gurgeon could be bested by the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Nothing is certain in a duel, Albus...you know that." Severus was openly pacing by now. "Bella could have gotten off a lucky Avada..."

"Nothing accounts for the fact that no trace of Maya's body was ever recovered, Severus." Albus interrupted. "Not even a muggle forensics expert was able to find anything." This stole the younger wizard's agitation.

"What? You brought in Muggles?"

"Yes. When the Ministry could find no trace, they consulted me and I felt it might be wise to employ...unusual...means to find out what had happened to the Order's strongest member. Keep in mind...when Secret-Keepers die, those that they are protecting are no longer protected." Albus said. "Lucius tells me that the Hidden Manor is still, in fact, hidden."

"What?" Severus asked, looking up. "I wondered where he disappeared from time to time...and how he kept Narcissa safe, of course...but the Hidden Manor is still protected by a secret-keeper?" At Albus' nod, Severus sat down heavily. "That means that Maya...that she's..."

"Still alive. Do you see, now, why it is important that Bellatrix not catch word of Hermione's disappearance?" At Severus' nod, Albus sighed and motioned for the man to go. The potion's master walked quickly for the door, assuming his normal sneer and stride. As he stepped off of the last of the gargoyle's round steps and turned towards the dungeons, he thought he saw a flash of purple robe. Shrugging it off, the man silently continued down to his hole...the one that he'd thrown himself into shortly after Maya's disappearance.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

_My Dearest Sirius,_

_Do not fret. I know how you are, don't you dare glare at me. Inside is my ring. I do not believe it would be prudent for me to wear it at the moment. However, if you still wish to marry me, ask me again when next you see me. I guarantee my answer will be a shouted, resounding "YES!" There...see? I knew I could get you to smile. Oh Siri. I never got to tell you everything about me. I do not know if I will ever have the chance, now._

Sirius' eyes read the slightly faded first paragraph of the simultaneously most loving and most hurtful letter that he'd ever recieved in his life. The beloved, elegant scrawl that composed it was imprinted in his mind. Every letter, every dot on every "I" and every cross on every "T" had been branded into his memory. Even in Azkaban, he'd read it- recited it, really, from memory- every year on the anniversary of his beloved Maya's disappearance. And sometimes, when he just felt like it.

_It's been a fun run, I'll give it that. I wouldn't trade these past four years for the world, Siri. Padfoot. Snuffles. You're everything I've ever dreamed of...everything I never knew existed until we met. But I have to say goodbye for a while, my dearest. I swear to you, we will meet again...though you may not know it is me. Listen to your heart, Sirius. That bitch cousin of yours is probably even now gloating about my death to her bed-buddy, Voldemort. Don't believe it. Unless there is actual evidence of my death, I wouldn't believe me dead if I were you. I've seen Lestrange in a duel, remember? I know her style. She'd be painfully easy to defeat, under normal circumstances._

Sirius didn't look up as a shadowy figure walked to the open door of the room within which he was sitting. "Lucius." He stated, quietly. "You've done a wonderful job of restoring everything..."

"I didn't think Maya would enjoy returning to a house touched in any way by Bellatrix." Lucius said, sitting on the bed beside Sirius. "Is that the letter that she gave you?"

"Yes..." Sirius said, quietly.

"Do you want company?" Lucius asked, hesitantly. They weren't exactly on the best of terms anymore...even with the knowledge of who Maya Gurgeon had been before she'd shown up out of the blue in their seventh year.

"Company...would be great." Sirius said, quietly. He turned his eyes back to the letter as Lucius stretched out on the bed behind him, providing a silent link to the present.

_As you may have guessed by now, my love, the circumstances under which I go into this duel are far from normal. Yes, I know of this duel. I know that Bellatrix Lestrange is going to accost me in my own home. It was I who set the battleground. I, who know the territory. I, who will be calling the shots- no matter what Bellatrix may think. No doubt Lucius will hear of my "death" in one way or another. Perhaps when I do not show up with the supplies that I have promised. I wish for you to be the one to tell him, Sirius, though you may not be on the best terms with him. Lucius is like my twin. He will feel my disappearance as if he himself were the one disappearing. Therefore, I ask you to commit this address to memory. Do not worry...once it is in your memory, the ink will know what to do..._

There was a space where the address had once been penned. Now, there was only a detailed sketch of the Hogwarts Crest. Lucius had, indeed, taken the news better from Sirius than he would have from anyone else. Not that that had been saying much. The blonde wizard had nearly leveled the entire Hidden Manor.

_I know that nothing will be the same after this. Believe me, I know. I am sorry that I have not been able to fulfill all of my promises, Siri. I know I do not have the right...but please, my love, please take care of Harry. I love Lily like a sister- I believe she, too, will know when I am gone- and I do not want her legacy to end with Harry._

There were several sentences penned after that, but they were all scratched out furiously...as if Maya had decided that her own pain was unimportant compared to Sirius'. Lily had known the moment that Maya had disappeared. She hadn't known exactly what had happened...but mid-way through the spell that would bind Peter "Pudge" Pettigrew as their Secret Keeper, Lily had turned to James- who was holding Harry- and said softly, "I feel like a piece of my heart and soul just disappeared."

James- mistaking it for nerves, had held her closer and kissed her temple as the spell was finished, sealing their fate.

_All will be well, my dear one. Cry as you need to. It is not a weakness to cry. Rather, it is a weakness to bottle everything within you and refuse to show a sign of weakness. Remember this, if you remember nothing else that I have told or taught you. I know that you- in all of your infuriating stubbornness- will not listen to me when I say this...but please do not hate the Slytherins. They could not have known, any more than you did. I sent Severus away, just as I sent you and Remus away. All of my affairs are in order. Dumbledore holds the deed to my Mansion...I ask that you have Remus tell him that I desire the house kept under my name. It can be used for a home for whomever needs it until my return to it...or it can be boarded up. It is really up to You, Remus, and Albus._

Sirius sighed and looked around the dust-ridden room. The mansion had been boarded up. Even with Maya gone, he'd been unable to see others living in her home.

_I guess this brings me to the end of my penned monologue. Remember, Siri, my motto: **Learn from the Past, Live in the Present, Look to the Future**. It has served me well while I was here...with you...and I believe it may serve you as well, in the next few years. You are my life, my hope, my heart, my love, Sirius Black. I truly look forward to the day when I can change my name, officially, to Maya Elizabeth Black. I love you._

_Yours Always,_

_Maya_

Her name had been signed with the same flourish that she'd used to write the rest of the letter...despite her own pain. Sirius sighed softly and folded the letter, slipping it back into its envelope and pulling out the ring within, studying the worn band with a wan smile. He'd spent so much time picking it out with James and Lucius' help...

"She loved you, you know." Lucius said. Sirius had almost forgotten that the other man was there. "You were her everything."

"Then why did she leave me, Lucius?" Sirius tried- and failed- to keep the dispair out of his voice.

"Sometimes, when we love someone, we must let them go." Lucius said, softly. He, too, was remembering a chocolate-eyed witch with honey-brown hair whose lips curled upwards into a beautiful, mischievous smile. "If they truly love us...they will return. They will fight hell itself to return."

"She hasn't come back." Sirius said, quietly. "I'm beginning to lose hope."

"Never lose hope, Black." Lucius said, his voice going hard. "If she had died, then the Hidden Manor would be revealed to all the world. It isn't, so she isn't. We **_must_** believe this. Whatever else happens. Maya has never let us down before."

"Yes she has." The new voice came from the door, and the men looked up to see Remus Lupin in the doorway.

"What are you talking about, Moony?" Sirius demanded.

"Maya could have saved Lily and James." Remus stated, simply. "She could have warned us about Pudge. She could have done a number of things that she did not do. And because of that, Lily and James are dead, twelve years of your life were wasted, and Maya herself has been lost to us."

"Lupin, you know as well as I do about her theories on changing history." Lucius snapped. "She does not believe it can be done!"

"If Hermione had never gone back, Maya never would have existed. I give you that." Remus said, angrily. "But she could have made a difference!"

"Think of the recoil of her actions though, Moony." Sirius said, slowly. The other two men looked at him. It wasn't usual for Sirius Black to play peacemaker. "Had she changed the fact that Peter betrayed Lily and James, Voldemort would either have been completely defeated, or he would have won the first war. Had she changed the fact that Peter betrayed Lily and James...Hermione Granger would have never had a reason to be in Grimmauld. I would have never 'died.' And Maya Gurgeon would have never gone back in time." He could tell immediately that he'd stunned the werewolf.

"I...hadn't thought of that." Remus said, slowly.

"Black's point remains..." Lucius said, softly. "Maya was helpless. And as angry as you are at her now, Lupin...how much must she hate herself for sitting back and watching those things happen?"

Remus stared at Lucius silently for a long time before bowing his head, conceding defeat. The Slytherin sighed, staring at the ceiling. Remus moved to the bed and sat on it, looking around at the room. "I wish we knew what became of her, after it all."

"So do I, Moony..." Sirius sighed and put the letter up, crawling beneath the blankets on the bed and closing his eyes. "So do I."

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"What you must remember about Griffens is that their Venom is very, very potent. So much so, in fact, that distilled Griffen Venom has become illegal in most countries, though there is always a cult here and there that uses it for a hallucinogen." The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's voice held the attention of the classroom as she lectured on the creature that stood on her desk, looking up at her in slight adoration. "This little guy is a Carlton Griffen...named after the fool who discovered them...and since he's young, his venom isn't quite as potent as it will be as a full-grown adult." She explained, one hand resting on the baby Griffen's back. "It is still potent enough, however, to kill anything smaller than an adult centaur. Which is why we've very carefully removed her venom-sacs."

She displayed this by opening the creature's beak and pointing to the place in the beak that the venom sac would normally fit. "It was sent to Professor Snape, who is one of the leading brewers of the antivenom. He will be lecturing on that particular subject, as he seems to enjoy doom and gloom." Professor Grant's voice turned wry with the last sentence, making her seventh-year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws laugh. The subject of her statement swept in at that moment, making the students stop mid-laugh.

"Helen, the Headmaster tells me that you are a Griffen Expert." He said in his silky voice.

"Yes, I am." She stated. "What do you need, Severus?" She gave a small cue to the young Griffen and the babe flew from her desk to its perch in one corner...the small house that it slept in at night opening as it landed and closing once it was inside. He glanced around at the students, hesitating. Getting the point, she turned to her class. "Dismissed. I want an essay naming each breed of Griffen and their defining characteristics. No less than three feet, no longer than seven. Due next week." The class groaned softly as they began to pack up. She then turned to the Potions Master. "Perhaps we should retire to my office, Severus?" At his nod, she turned and walked up the stairs and into her office.

Closing the door behind him, Severus turned and sat across from her. "Would a nest of Griffens ally themselves with a wizard?"

"It's been done." She said, after a short pause. "The only breed that would do any good in combat for a wizard would be Babylonian Griffens. They are the size, roughly, of a horse, and their venom flows through hollow claws instead of their beak." When he nodded, encouraging her to continue, she reached under her desk and pulled out a photograph of a giant eagle-lion-like creature, handing it to him. "Babylonian Griffens work in nests, like most of the breeds, but there is also a center-figure in their society."

"They have a King." Snape said, his voice reflecting his dumbfounded thoughts.

"Close." The Defense Professor smiled. "They have a Queen. She chooses her successor, and she's actually very intelligent. I've met her."

"You've...met her?"

"Yes, indeed." The Defense Professor sat back. It had been a few months ago by the reckoning of this time-span...though it had been about four and a half years ago by hers.

"Is there a chance of her allying with Voldemort?" Severus asked. _Ah..._ Maya thought _Now we come to the real reason for his visit._

"Very little to none at all." She stated. "Griffens, though they seem to be mindless creatures, actually have very high standards for good and evil. They see the shades of gray in between as well, but their standards are still higher than most wizards' about what they consider to be 'good' and what they consider to be 'evil.' Therefore, there is very little chance in hell that Queen Miliano will even consider an alliance with Voldemort."

"Is there a way to get them to be double-agents?" Severus asked.

"There is...but I wouldn't trust them." Helen stated. "Queen Miliano may see your attempt to get her to play a double-agent as 'evil.' She could very well turn on us."

"I see."

"Severus...is Voldemort asking you to employ the Griffens?" She asked, hesitantly. He stiffened, his face closing down as he stood up.

"Thank you for your time, Helen." He said, swooping out. Dark brown eyes lingered on the door as it slammed shut before she stood up and walked to the window, looking out. It was so hard not to be known...not to seek out Lucius- who had been her closest friend- and Remus...who was all that remained of the Mauraders. It was hard enough seeing Harry and Draco in class...mocking her of what she could have done but didn't. The tortured soul of the young woman felt as if a hot iron was thrust into her gut every time she saw Harry and remembered that she had- as surely as Peter had been the one to tell Voldemort where the Potters resided- killed the woman that had been like a sister to her.

Eyelids fell down over the brown orbs as tears threatened to spill over. Pain threatened to engulf her, but first she raised her wand, locking and warding her office until it would take Dumbledore himself hours to break in. Then she slowly dropped to her knees, holding onto her desk for its support before curling up, staring into space with tearless eyes, her mouth stretched wide into a scream so ridden with anguish that no sound was uttered. With each dry, empty sob that wracked her body, she felt a bit of her soul bleed away a little more until- when at last she lay still, her grief spent- her eyes had gone empty.

She didn't know how long she remained there, wig ascew and mask falling off, staring into space, but as she slowly came back to herself, she gathered herself together and slowly began to pick herself up, standing slowly and conjuring a mirror. Dejectedly, she cleaned up her face and charmed her eyes to hide the redness in them. This done, she cleared her throat quietly and fixed the wig. Undoing the wards on the door, she stepped out into her classroom to face Albus Dumbledore as he came in.

"I thought you could use a bit of tea." He stated.

"Thank you, Albus." She motioned to her office and went back in. As he sat across from her and conjured up some tea, she rubbed her temples. "It's much harder than I'd imagined."

"What I still don't understand, Maya, is why you did not make the potion before." Albus said.

"I did." He looked up at her, surprised. "I was researching it, even in Hogwarts. What, you thought all of my research on potions ingrediants, charms, and time travel was for fun? I'd made several smaller potions, and they took my experimental animals forwards in time for up to three days, but it took me the entire nearly four years to find a final ingrediant that would be strong enough to throw me sixteen years into the future." She sighed. "To be honest, I expected to die."

"I am quite surprised, frankly, that you did not." Albus said, quietly.

"Yes. So am I." Her answer was short this time...the discussion was quite clearly finished. Albus sighed and looked at the brilliant young woman, studying the light that was no longer in her eyes. The zest for living. What he found surprised him.

"You honestly believe that you have no reason to continue, don't you." He said. She froze, tea cup halfway to her lips. Icey brown eyes snapped to him.

The cup exploded, the tea fizzling and evaporating.

"**_LOOK_** at me, Albus! Look what I've become! I used to have it all! Twice now, I've had it all! Friends, Family, **_a future_** and twice now, I've had to let it all go. **_LOOK_** at me, Albus! In hiding like some coward, too afraid to know the world's reactions to come out of my shell." She was standing by this point, her voice cold and precise...more so than Severus' ever had been. At least he had his Godson to live for...at least his Godson knew him. "Look at me." She said, one last time. "And tell me- to my face- that there is a reason to continue. Harry and Ron are four years younger than I- they have not seen **_HALF_** of what I have...thank the gods for that- and Remus, Lucius, Trevor, and Severus are all nearly twenty **_years_** older than me, now. I've moved from one war straight into the middle of another! I embraced each generation for a short while, Albus...but because of that, now I am a part of neither one."

The Headmaster was stunned. He'd known that it would be difficult for her...but even he- the wise Dumbledore- hadn't anticipated even half of the problems that the young witch would face. Maya yanked off her mask and wig in frustration, yanking out the pins that held her hair up, and raked a hand through the long golden-brown locks.

"There will be a dance this year, for Halloween." Albus said, finally. "I've employed a band that you might know to play for it...their features transfigured to hide them from most of the students, of course. Now, normally I require teachers to attend...but perhaps the staff would not find it amiss if a young, twenty-one year old witch came with a mask hiding her face as a guest singer in the band?"

"I...what?" He'd lost her. Albus sighed.

"Snake's Halo has been hired to play at the Halloween Dance. They need a female singer for one of their songs. I told them I had just the person." Albus spelled it out for her. "So if I were you, I would start practicing." He handed her the song and walked away. "But you are not to give away your true face, _Helen_." He stressed her fake name and she sighed.

"Of course not, Albus." She stated, putting the mask on. With a flick of her wand, her hair was piled on the top of her head, and she settled the wig into place, pinning it, before walking the headmaster to the door.

No...musn't let them know that she was herself. She supposed that she should be used to it. After all, she'd spent the past four **_years_** living a lie, right?


	2. Chapter 1: Avenging Sirius

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.**

A big thanks and a shout out goes to:

**  
screwtheperfectlife – Yes, Snake's Halo is back for a short time at the beginning of this chapter. Also, Draco's Godfather is Severus Snape.**

**Bob With the Really Long Name – I'm glad you liked it. She was beginning to border too much as a god-like character. While she is a very powerful woman, she's not perfect, and that was what I was trying to portray near the end of the Prologue.**

**Warg – Of course it was more than the preview I sent you. The part that I sent you was a preview. Meaning, you got a snippet, but not the entire thing.**

**goldenlioness1102 – If you haven't read Kicking Buckets, do so. It explains that Maya is, indeed, Hermione.**

**FredWeasleyLover1126 – Yes, there is a sequel. Originally, there wasn't, but so many people wanted one that I decided to write one.**

**Snow-Fairie – Yes, it's the sequel. I'm glad you like it.**

_It hasn't previously been posted in the description, but this is, indeed, the sequel to Kicking Buckets. Those of you who haven't read this story should, because otherwise some of the stuff that is said and done here will make no sense whatsoever._

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

**Chapter 1**

_Many times in the past four years, I have longed with all of my heart to return to the time that I originated in...to return to Ron and Harry and the familiarity that we three shared. Each time, I was denied. And now...in the end...I no longer belong in either world. They say that home is where the heart is. How can I decide where my "home" is anymore? Harry, Ron...Ginny. All of my friends here...they are now four **years** younger than I._

_I do not belong with my generation any longer...and yet...neither do I belong in the generation that I left behind, mere months ago by my reckoning. For Sirius, Lucius, Remus, Severus, and Trevor...it has been sixteen years since they have seen me. Lucius will be turning Thirty-**Eight** this January. James and Lily would have just turned Thirty-Seven...and Sirius. Oh, Sirius. I cannot think on it. **Twelve**_ _years spent in Azkaban. When I could have cleared him! When I could have prevented it all! Oh, Pudge, you little fool! When I find you, Pettigrew, there will be twenty years worth of deception for you to make up for._

_And yet..._

_Can I really blame Peter any more than I blame myself? In all fairness...can I truly hate him any more than I hate myself? For that matter, should I hate myself any less than I hate Bellatrix Lestrange? For as surely as Peter spoke the words that condemned Lily and James, I too condemned them with my own inaction. Oh Albus! I took your words to heart, but at what cost! My own heart? My own mind? My **soul**? I remember that night in the Hospital Wing._

_I never thought that ten words comprising two sentences could be so damning._

_"You know the law. You know what you are risking."_

_A pox on you, Albus, for implanting in my mind the code that I was forced to live by for four long years! I never spoke a word, not even when I knew who the traitor was! I let Lily and James be condemned to death! Not to mention Sirius! Twelve years in Azkaban. Oh my love! What have I done?_

_**Maya Gurgeon**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

She shouldn't have let Albus talk her into it, Maya thought bitterly. She was in a pair of pale blue dressrobes that accented her figure, her hair was half down, with two braids running along each side of her head like a crown to combine with the rest of her hair in the back, the braids carefully pinned so that the braids only just touched, the rest of her hair hanging straight and perfect to her butt. A silver chain around her neck accented her bright golden tan and emphasized the blue of the robes nicely as she stood sipping champagne and watching the students carefully.

She was a teacher, after all...even though she was not wearing the disguise that made her Helen Grant. Snake's Halo was a good band...though it seemed to Maya that they played as though their hearts were not fully in it. Most of the students would not recognize the blonde on guitar or the dark man on the drums, but Maya had spent four years learning the men and their styles. Even now- sixteen years later, by their reckonings- they could hide nothing from her, though she hid behind a quaint silver mask that covered the upper half of her face, leaving only her mouth completely revealed. Maya watched as Lucius ended the current song and began searching the crowd. That was her cue. Sighing and handing the wine glass to Albus, she picked up her microphone silently. Albus would give the signal to Lucius when she was in position, and the Blonde would kick off the song.

She moved into her place and looked up, catching Albus' eye and nodding. He turned and made a motion to Lucius, who nodded and, taking a slow breath, began to play.

(Note: Regular: Actions, **Bold: Hermione,**_ Italics: Lucius, **Both: Both**_)

**I'm not supposed to be scared of anything, **Maya began walking up towards the stage, mounting the steps with a slow precision that drew all eyes to her.

**But I don't know where I am**

**I wish that I could move but I'm exhausted** She stopped on the stage, facing the audience, just beside Lucius. Spreading the hand holding the mic up, palm out towards the crowd, she continued singing.

**And nobody understands **_how I feel_

**I'm tryin' hard to breathe now** Her hand slowly curled into a fist and she drew it back to press it against her chest.

**But there's no air in my lungs.**

**There's no one here to talk to** She bowed her head.

**And the pain inside is making me numb.**

**I try to hold this under control**

**They can't help me, cause no one knows.** Her head snapped up, brown eyes burning into the crowd, despite the mask.

**_Now I'm goin' through changes, changes._** Her hand moved out to the crowd, imploring.

**_God, I feel so frustrated, lately._** The hand dropped to her side, clenching into a fist.

**_When I get suffocated, save me. _**She looked over and met Lucius' eyes.

**_Now I'm goin' through changes, changes_**.****Maya spun, walking back towards Severus, whose eyes widened as he saw the dark brown eyes beneath the mask.

**Feelin' weak and weary** She spun back towards the crowd,

**Walkin' through this world alone** Her hips swayed in the thin, silky material of the robes as she moved towards the edge of the stage.

**Everything they say every word of it **She dropped her head back, half falling on purpose before standing once more.

**Cuts me to the bone** _and I bleed_

**I've got something to say**

**But I've got nowhere to turn** Her hand swept out over the crowd

**It feels like I've been buried** Her head dropped once again.

**Underneath all the weight of the world.**

**I try to hold this under control**

**They can't help me, cause no one knows.** Right on cue, her eyes burned into the crowd as her head snapped back up.

**_Now I'm goin' through changes, changes. _**She danced lightly to the lyrics, losing herself in them as she spun around, her robes swirling around her legs.

**_God, I feel so frustrated, lately._** Her hand balled and she raised her eyes to the ceiling as she sang

**_When I get suffocated, save me._** Her hand flung out to the crowd.

**_Now I'm goin' through changes, changes. _**She spun and stalked towards the side of the stage, stopping as Lucius began to play the Instrumental break.

She dropped to her knees, facing the crowd as her voice raised in a perfect harmony with Lucius.'

_**I'm blind and shakin', bound and breakin'**_

_**I hope I'll make it, through all these changes**_

Trevor Wingardium Leviosa'ed her at the exact moment and she shot upwards in a controlled spin, landing on her feet easily- despite the height of her stilleto heels.

**_Now I'm goin' through changes, changes._** She and Lucius turned, singing to each other much like they once used to...though this time, he had no idea who she was.

**_God, I feel so frustrated, lately._** Maya poured her sorrow into the lyrics as she sang.

_**When I get suffocated, save me.**_

**_Now I'm falling apart, now I feel it. _**She turned, pointing to the crowd.

**_But I'm goin' through changes, changes._** Stamping a foot, she moved towards the edge of the stage.

**_God, I feel so frustrated, lately!_** She threw the microphone into the air after turning it off, stretching both hands upwards. Catching it, she brought it to her mouth again, finishing up the song.

_**When I get suffocated, I hate this.**_

**_But I'm goin' through changes, changes_**. She froze as Lucius finished playing the very last of the song. As the student body went wild, Maya bowed formally with Lucius, handing him back the microphone.

"Thank you, Sir. It has been truly a pleasure." She stated, calmly.

"Indeed." He drawled. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"You're welcome." She stated. She'd recognized the song, of course...she'd helped write it. "Well...happy playing." She turned, walking for the edge of the stage, unaware of the black eyes tracing her every move.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"Where is she?" Severus demanded of the Headmaster, the next day. He'd burst in while Albus and Maya were discussing things, and she'd barely had time to put on her mask and wig before the Head of Slytherin had seen her.

"Where is who, Severus?" Albus asked.

"Maya. Don't you dare lie to me, Albus, I know that it was her last night. Nobody else could have put as much flavor into one of her songs."

Albus and 'Helen' exchanged glances. The gig, it seemed, was up. Before either of them could say anything, however, Remus burst into the room, gasping for breath. "Albus!" He choked out. "Maya's old...mansion." He was still gasping for breath. Helen and Albus both stood at the words.

"What about it?" Albus asked, fearing that he already knew.

"Bellatrix Lestrange and a few other Deatheaters broke in. Sirius shoved me into a closet, hiding my wand and setting a timed locking spell on the door." Remus gasped out. "He fought...but it was one against five, and..."

"Please tell me he's not dead." Albus said, slowly. His eyes were warily on his Defense Professor's face. Nothing written on the woman's features- even through the mask- were very pleasant.

"He wasn't when they left, but you know Bellatrix..." Before Remus could get through the sentence, the door flung open and Neville Longbottom and Professor McGonagall appeared.

"Albus! Deatheaters in Hogsmeade!" Minerva choked out. "They've taken some students!"

"Which ones?" Albus had to fight to maintain his temper. If he lost his, then there would be no way in hell that Maya would keep hers leashed.

"Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Ginerva Weasley, Blaise Zabini, and Draco Malfoy are the students that didn't arrive safely back to Hogsmeade when we sounded the emergency return signal." Minerva said, her face pale.

"What are we to do?" Remus asked, even more worried than before. Albus spoke more to the woman coiled as tight as a spring at his side.

"We must wait, for now..." He began.

"Stow it, Albus. Am I an auror or what?" She snapped. All eyes shot to her.

"Helen, please." Albus said, trying to keep her calm.

"**_NO_**, Albus!" Her voice was whipping with power quite suddenly. The others in the room fell back in shock, recognizing both the ice in the voice and the terrible power about the witch. "It's time for me to show myself and bite the bullet, as the muggles say." She said, reaching up and pulling off the wig and the mask, letting her hair fall down perfectly. A spell later and it was styled nicely in the same style as it had been the night before.

Severus and Remus stared at her, wide-eyed, even as she flicked her wand in disgust at her robes, switching them to a pair of more modern purple robes. Straightening them calmly, she looked at Neville and nodded in greeting. "Hello, Neville. How are your parents?"

Neville was pale, staring at the woman as if she'd just stepped out of the picture in the newspaper in the scrapbook that his grandmother had of his parents' rescue. "T-they're okay, M-M-Miss G-G..."

"Come now, none of that." She said, kindly. "It will always be Hermione or Maya to you, Neville. Unless in class, that is. In that case, it's Professor Gurgeon."

"H-Hermione? Granger?" Neville asked. At her sharp nod, his jaw dropped. "Wow...you...you're..."

"I'm back. But you can hear the story later. I've things to do." She smiled and rested a hand on his shoulder for a moment before spinning and moving across the room towards the door. Stopping at it, she looked down and to one side. "Severus. I need you to contact Lucius. Tell him nothing of what has happened in this room. I need him to find Bellatrix and go to her. He's to have Narcissa put a tracking charm on him. Once we have a firm idea of his whereabouts, Alastor and Kingsley will start in first. Nobody will do anything until my signal, however. I would like you and Remus to be there as well. If there is any chance of compromising your cover, I want you to try to hex Remus. Remus, you will react accordingly. However, you will only act to stun. Do not kill Severus, I'm rather fond of him." This said, she left the room.

Only once she was gone did the occupants of the room regain the use of their voices and motor skills. "Was that..." Remus asked, slowly.

"Maya Gurgeon has returned." Albus said, grimly.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Lucius Malfoy sat silently in his study, doing some paperwork for the ministry, when the flames in his fireplace flashed green and Severus Snape stepped out of them. "Lucius." He greeted, as soon as he was oriented.

"Severus. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Lucius drawled.

"Bellatrix Lestrange has captured Black, Potter, and a pair of Weasleys." Severus stated. "I was wondering if you might help me keep my cover with Dumbledore in tact by having your dear wife put a tracking charm on you and going to them?"

"Now, Severus." Lucius stated. "Why would I do that?"

"Because Draco and Blaise Zabini were also abducted." Severus said, calmly. Lucius' jaw tightened.

"Very well, Severus. I will help you keep your precious cover in tact. But if you are lying to me..."

"Heaven forbid." Severus said, drily. "Remus Lupin burst into the Headmaster's office midway through a talk with me, ranting about Black being abducted. Minerva McGonagall wasn't far behind, whining about Deatheaters in Hogsmeade and missing students."

"I see." Lucius said, standing up. "Narcissa!" When his wife walked in, Lucius was shrugging on his cloak. "Put a tracking charm on me, would you dear? One that is strong enough to avoid your dear sister's detection?"

"What has she done this time?" Narcissa asked, clearly fed up with her sister, as she put the spell on Lucius.

"She's abducted students. Severus has asked me to go to Bellatrix to lead him there in an attempt to rescue them." Lucius sneered. "Though some of the students would be better off in Bella's..._kind_ care...she was also fool enough to abduct Draco and his best friend."

"Stupid of her." Was all Narcissa said. "Well, there you go dear." With a sharp nod, the blonde Slytherin disapparated.

"Narcissa, I would beg of you to ask the elves to set out a bit of a refreshment." Severus said, quietly. "When she arrives, she's not going to be happy. Maybe you can calm her down."

"When who arrives, Severus?" Narcissa asked. Before he could answer, there were about ten pops, signalling apparition. The flames of the fireplace turned green once more and out stepped Remus Lupin and Albus Dumbledore. Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shackbolt, Nymphadora Tonks, and a series of other aurors in the Order were standing there as well, looking distinctly uncomfortable. There was one last pop and a witch in a deep purple set of robes and a black cloak stood there, her hood pulled low.

"Hello, Narcissa." The voice was one that Narcissa had never thought to hear again. She stared, speechless, as the figure glanced around at the small force gathered before nodding her satisfaction.

"I'll...just...have the House Elves bring out some refreshments. I'm not sure how long Lucius will be in finding Bellatrix..." Narcissa stuttered.

"Thank you, Narcissa."

"Can someone tell us why we're here?" Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody snapped.

"Because of me." The witch hidden by her cloak said, calmly. His magical eye turned to her and he gasped, both eyes widening. "Hello, Partner." She said, companionably. The younger aurors looked at each other. Nobody had ever heard of the grizzly old Auror having ever had a partner.

Before anyone else could say anything, a soft chime rang out and Narcissa returned. "He's found them." She stated, magically sending each of them the location that had rang out in her brain moments before. The strange witch beneath the cloak nodded.

"Albus, you will remain here. No arguments, you're too valuable to lose." She stated. "Alastor, you and Kingsley can keep these young, rash aurors in line, right? Good...remember, everyone...whatever else happens, whatever you see or hear, **_DO NOT_** move or make yourselves known in any way until my signal. If in doubt...wait until Alastor and Kingsley move. They know me, and they know my signals. Understood?" When she recieved the affirming nods from everyone, she turned to Severus and Remus. "Remember...if there's any chance of your position being compromised, Severus, you're to turn on Remus. Mild hexes only, and Remus, you'll be aiming to stun, not kill."

"What of the children?" Remus asked.

"Each of the aurors will grab one at the first opportunity and apparate back here. Narcissa, may we use your floo services to return to Hogwarts?"

"Of course." Narcissa stated.

"Good." And then the strange witch was gone.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Sirius woke up slowly to see the worried faces of Harry and Ron hovering above him. With a groan, he put a hand to his head. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, for sure..." Harry said, softly.

"Bellatrix Lestrange..." Sirius said suddenly, sitting up so quickly that his aching head burst into white light and pain. Groaning, the animagus fell once more to the ground, eyes tightly shut.

"Yes...and a few others." Came a cold drawl to one side. "My father should be here shortly." Draco sat calmly against the wall, confident as always. The door slammed open suddenly and Ginny was thrown back in, tears streaking her face. Her pants were ripped open. Harry and Ron gave identical shouts of outrage, moving to her and helping her back.

"Oh, Gin...Gin...shh..." Ron gathered her close, even when she tried to reject his touch, and held her as she began to sob.

Sirius looked grimly at the young woman before trying to sit up again. The pain in his head, unfortunately, was still too great. "How long have we been here?" He asked.

"You were here when we got here." Blaise Zabini said, from his position against the wall beside Draco. Neither had tried to approach Ginny, knowing that it would be better for her if they didn't. They were, after all, good friends with Pansy Parkinson...whose father raped her regularly. "We've been here for about an hour."

"I figure...twenty minutes to get the students back to Hogwarts...ten to search Hogsmeade to insure that we are, indeed, missing, and about an hour and a half to two hours after that to get everything organized for a search." Harry said. "So...we have about an hour to an hour and a half left to wait." Draco nodded his agreement and closed his eyes.

"You know..." The blonde said after about five minutes. "It's too bad our Godmum isn't here." He said, opening his eyes and looking at Harry. "I bet she'd have something to say to my cursed Aunt." Despite the gravity of the situation, Harry chuckled.

"All of the stories of her hexing people...she'd have a right riot with this." The green-eyed Gryffindor agreed. The teens shared a smirk before the door of their cell opened.

"Come along." A voice said. They sighed and stood. Ron helped Ginny along while Harry helped Sirius. Draco and Blaise sauntered just before and behind the Gryffindors..almost as if they were guarding them. The group was ushered out of a building and into a barren, dark field. It was night, clouds covering the light of the moon. It had been an unusually dry winter, so there was no snow...just empty blackness. Therefore, it was understandable when nobody noticed the black-cloaked figures surrounding them.

Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy stood to one side, conferring. Sirius growled. "Bellatrix. I should have known."

She looked up. "Ah. Sirius. Still as stupid as you used to be, I see."

"Bellatrix. Still have that scar, I see." Sirius said, motioning to her face and the barely visible line trailing from her left temple to the right side of her chin.

"Why you!" Bella had her wand out in moments, pointing it at him for a long moment before stopping and putting it away. "No, no...there are better ways..."

"Just like there were better ways to get at Maya, Bellatrix?" Sirius sneered. Bella's face registered surprise and then she arched an eyebrow.

"What are you on about, Black?" She snapped.

"Coming at her in our bleeding home. How moronic. Like she wouldn't have set the stage to defeat you." Sirius stated. Bellatrix's wand was out at that moment once again.

"Shut up, Black." She hissed. "If you know what's good for you. Maybe my master will be merciful when he arrives."

"Some master." Sirius snorted. "He couldn't even beat Maya himself. Yeah. Heap big master."

"YOU WILL NOT INSULT THE DARK LORD IN MY PRESENCE!" Bellatrix screamed, lifting her wand.

"**_Lestrange!_**"****A voice called from outside of the circle of light created by torches and wands. Bellatrix froze, mid-spell. "I wouldn't."

Narcissa's sister turned slowly, her eyes widening. "No." Her voice was soft. "No..." She whispered again, in a hopeless denial.

"Afraid, Bellatrix?" The voice was hard and cruel. "You were always such a coward. But then...I guess in this case, you should be afraid." Sirius was staring into the darkness with wide, disbelieving eyes. Harry and Ron looked at each other, and then Draco and Blaise. They couldn't see the witch beyond the light, but they had no doubt about who she was...Bellatrix and Sirius' reactions were too strange for it not to be her.

"You're dead." Bella snapped in one last desperate denial as a foot encased in a black boot entered the circle of light, followed by a second boot, followed by a young woman in dark purple robes, her golden-brown hair falling to her waist. Her hands were encased in black Auror's gloves, one on her left hip and the other holding her wand steadily at Bellatrix.

"After all." The cold voice continued, coming from the witch that had just moved into the light. "It's not every day that you see your archenemy return from the dead."

"**_NO!_**" Bellatrix screamed in one last fierce denial, whipping her wand towards the brunette as quickly as she could, the words of a spell jumping to her lips.

"**_AVADA KEDAVRA!_**" The much-younger witch beat her to the point. Bellatrix Lestrange's body crumpled where it had stood and the wand gripped silently in the brunette's hand moved down slightly. "Accio, wands." A series of wands flew into her hand and she looked at them all as the Deatheaters- save for Lucius- began to surround her. Smirking at them all, she raised her wand and shot a spell into the sky. A giant bird of fire opened its wings and let out a peal of music, swooping down on the Deatheaters.

At the signal, the Aurors fell upon the Deatheaters. Voldemort's forces never had a chance, without Bellatrix' fanaticism leading the way. Once they were all in bonds and all of the abducted teens and adults were safely gone, Maya nodded to Alastor, who motioned to the remaining aurors. They apparated with their captives, while Maya herself apparated back to the Malfoy Manor, pausing only to pick up her inky black cloak on the way. As she appeared in Lucius' study, she glanced around silently before reaching for a pinch of floo powder.

"It was you, last night, wasn't it." A voice stopped her. Her hand fell away from the mantle and her head lowered, her back to the blonde wizard.

"It was me."

"Maya..." Lucius whispered. "Why...why didn't..."

"Why didn't I save them? Why didn't I kill her when I had the chance? Why didn't I tell you all? Because that would have been cheating. You can't change history, Lucius."

"No. Why didn't you come to me to tell me you were back?" As his voice broke, she turned and looked up at the wizard.

"Oh...Lucius." And then she was running to him, his arms outstretched to catch her, swinging her around and holding her. Long blonde hair fell over his face and cascated over her head and shoulders as they clung to each other.

"A piece of my soul disappeared with you...and I don't have it back yet. Maya...what have you done?" Lucius asked, dreading the answer. He got it, however, when she lifted her head, looking into his eyes with her empty ones. "No..." He whispered.

"I'm sorry." She yanked away from him, stumbling backwards. The floo powder fell from the mantle and into the fire as she fell into it and- turning- she dove into the flames. "Headmaster's office, Hogwarts!"

"Maya!" Lucius cried, reaching out...too late.

**Okay...the song in this chapter was: Changes – 3 Doors Down**


	3. Chapter 2: Avenging Lily

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.**

**A big thanks and a shout out goes to:**

**  
goldenlioness1102 – Well...you'll just have to see, won't you?**

**Bob the Amazing Immortal Bouncing Goldfish Lord of the Exploding Plastacine Chickens – Well...she gets out of it because...no, I won't tell you. I'll simply let you wait for Chapter 3 to come out to see exactly what twist of fate I throw in.**

**Raspberri13 – Technically, it was a prologue and a first chapter...but I know what you mean.**

**Ginny-and-Draco-fan – I'm glad you enjoy it. And I know what you mean about reading cliffies. However...I find that I enjoy writing cliffies because one, it drives you all bonkers and two, I'm sadistic like that.**

**hpobsessor – I'll explain more on that exchange, later. In the third chapter...which I have just finished writing...it shows a bit more. And why she doesn't answer him? Iono...ask Maya.**

**FredWeasleyLover1126 – Her empty eyes mean, basically, that she is completely emotionless. She believes that 1. she doesn't have a right to live after what happened to James and Lily and 2. her friends have all moved on without her- whether they be Ron and Harry or the Marauders and Snake's Halo.**

**Miss Pinky – I'm glad you enjoy this series so much. It's my most popular series, and I enjoy writing it.**

**screwtheperfectlife – I'll explain more on the whole piece of the soul missing thing later. It's one of those funky subplots that I sometimes throw into my stories to piss people off and make them go "Huh? Wait...huh!"**

**Dark Me – I'm glad you enjoy it so much.**

**amrawo – The last bit with Lucius confused a lot of people. You're just going to have to wait with everyone else to find out what she "did" because I'm not going to explain it five hundred times.**

**sln1987 – Glad you liked it.**

**dramaqueen73190 – Indeed it would...and you'll see later that it does and there are serious repercussions from it. So...you'll have to read to dfind out exactly what those are.**

**The Gryffindor Drummer – It's quite alright. I'm glad you got to review to the second update and that you enjoy it.**

**Dagworth – I'm glad you like it.**

_**Here is your next update! –Bows.- I'm glad so many of you like this story! I'm only on the third update and already there are over five hundred hits! That's wonderful! I love you all! Okay...there has been a lot of confusion when it comes to the last exchange between Maya and Lucius in Chapter 1 (Or Chapter 2, for those of you who don't look at the title of the chapter and only see the 1. 2. 3...etc that the site posts) and I...WILL NOT...be alleviating the confusion at this point in time. It is- to a point- in the chapter that comes after this one...and after that, the explanation will come steadily until hopefully the confusion is all gone.**_

_**Anyway, we're not here to listen to my rambling...so without further adieu, I give you the next chapter!**_

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

**Chapter 2**

_Bellatrix Lestrange is dead. Penning those words makes me the happiest that I've been since I returned to this time, several months ago. My archenemy is dead. Would that I had done this sixteen years ago before taking that potion. But you cannot change history. It may not yet have happened...but it was history to me. The entirity of Lily and James' future was my past. My history._

_Sirius, you have been avenged. All, now, that is left is Pudge Pettigrew._

_Rat-face, you'd better start praying. **I'm back.**_

_**Maya Gurgeon**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya stepped out of the fire into the headmaster's office, looking around silently. Spying Neville in one corner, she moved to the desk. Seemingly oblivious to the eyes on her, she reached into her robes and pulled free the robes that she'd taken from Bellatrix's body and- angling her own wand discreetly in her sleeve- held her left hand silently over the wands and cast a non-verbal spell. _Accio, Bellatrix Lestrange's wand._ As the wand jumped the whole two inches into the air to her hand, she slid her own wand back into the wrist holder that she'd recieved during her work as an auror.

Leaving the rest of the wands where they were for the moment, Hermione gripped each end of the wand firmly, one end in each hand, with her palms facing the ground and her thumbs extending near the middle of the wand. Looking at the wand- and not the group of aurors, students, and professors staring at her- she applied pressure firmly to the ends of the wand, which broke with a small crack. A whisp of black smoke trailed upwards from the exposed core of the wand and Hermione looked up, her eyes finding Neville once more.

"Mr. Longbottom, please step forward." She said in what Albus called her 'professor' voice. When he obeyed, she grasbed both ends of the shattered wand in her left hand and extended them to the boy, meeting his eyes. He hesitated for a moment before reaching up and grasping the exposed ends of the wand. "In accordance to the unspoken laws of both Vengeance and Justice, I give you the wand of the witch that sealed the fate of your parents."

"I...you...Thank you, Professor Grant." He said, automatically, taking the wand from her hands and stepping back in a daze.

"Neville." When he looked up to meet her eyes again from the wand, she smiled. "It's Maya." He nodded and moved back to his seat.

"Maya?" She looked at the Headmaster. "Is Bellatrix..."

"Bellatrix Lestrange is dead." There was an ice in Hermione's voice that hadn't been there moments before. Silence fell upon the office as Draco, Harry, and Blaise stared at her. Ron had taken Ginny to the Hospital Wing.

"I see." There was a gravity in Dumbledore's voice that rarely showed up. "The other Deatheaters?"

"We have them in custody, Albus." Alastor stated, stepping forward. His mad eye was aimed at Hermione. She met it for a long moment, before it turned away from her.

"Good, good..." Albus said, watching Hermione. She stood there for a long moment before turning and quietly walking to the door.

"Misters Potter and Malfoy." She called over her shoulder. "I want you both in my office first thing tomorrow morning." A chorus of 'Yes Professor's followed her out the door. Glancing about once she was in the hallway, she made her way towards the Entrance of the school, exiting and hurrying silently down to the gates. Slipping out, she concentrated and, with a pop, disapparated.

She reappeared in the mansion that had been her home for- to her- the past three years. The disorientation of knowing that she'd travelled through time returned with a vengeance...just as it had several times when she'd done it the first time, four years before. She would adjust, she knew, but it would be a while. Staring around the dust-ridden rooms, Maya's jaw tightened and she slipped her wand from its holder. "Scourgify!" She cried, beginning to clean the room thoroughly. When she had finished with the entire house, top to bottom, she moved down the eerily silent hallway of the second floor.

She felt as if her heart was being torn apart when she saw the letter that she'd written to Sirius resting on their bed. Forcing herself to shrug it off, she silently moved to the stairs at the end of the hallway and climbed up the curving, elegant staircase into the attic that had been made into her own personal library. Stopping before the sealed door, she studied it quietly before speaking.

"_Aluminus Vestus_" As the door slowly slid open, she moved slowly into the room that had been her haven...outside of which the final battle had been fought with Bellatrix Lestrange, the one that had sealed her fate...throwing her back into her original time and forcing her to lose everything.

The library was just as she had left it. It had been the one place that the dust had not touched. A fond smile graced her lips as she moved around the room, gazing at the floor-to-ceiling shelves and touching the spines of many of the books. Walking to her desk, she sat down and pulled open a drawer, pulling out a set of notes and studying it for a long time before sighing and sitting back. A glance at the clock on the wall made her happiness at being safely in her mansion disappear. A wizard's clock, near identical to Molly Weasley's...indeed, Molly's had been a gift from Maya and Sirius for Christmas. The hands each held the face of someone Hermione had loved. Harry, Draco, Sirius, Lucius, Trevor, Pudge, James, Lily, Narcissa, Severus, and Remus. Each of them had a hand.

Standing, she walked to the clock and gazed sorrowfully at the two hands pointing calmly at 'dead.' Her eyes closed slightly before she opened them once more and looked for the familiar, smiling, loving face. There...pointing at 'Hogwarts' along with Harry, Draco, Remus, and Severus. There it was. The undeniable proof that he lived. The relief was so great that she very nearly collapsed beneath its weight. He must have gone to the Hospital Wing.

Silently, Maya moved to the bookcases and studied the books there for several moments before she moved across the carpeted room and out of the library, sealing it behind her once more and studying the attic that she'd emerged into. As she walked down the hallways and towards the exit of the mansion, her wand began to release the windows, allowing light to stream into the house. Stepping out onto the front step, Maya looked around silently for a short time before closing the door behind her and disapparating with a distinct pop.

Moving silently up and into the castle, the witch stepped through the doors and walked up to get Madam Pomfrey's report on Ginny's health. As she entered the Hospital Wing, Ron looked up.

"Hermione." He said, quietly. She looked at him and he smiled. "You're back."

"It's Maya now, Ron." She said, her voice low. "It has been for four years...for me." She then brushed past him into the curtained ward where Ginny was curled up on the bed, shivering and staring into space.

"Who's there? Get ou...oh, it's only you Miss Gurgeon."

"Hello, Poppy." Maya smiled. "I don't suppose you could give me a report on Miss Weasley's health?"

"Sexual assault. That's the main part." Poppy said, looking down at the girl on the bed. "She doesn't seem to have taken any curse damage at all..."

"Shock?" Maya asked.

"Very possible. It's what I'm treating her for, anyways." Poppy explained. Maya nodded, cataloguing the information in her perfect memory- Fudge had once tried to catch her on a case by saying that she couldn't possibly have memorized all of the facts. He had failed...humiliatingly...when the medi-witch and other researchers brought in to confirm that Maya was lying had recited- to the word- precisely what Maya had said before.

"Would it be possible for me to question her now, Madam?" The brunette looked down at the trembling redheaded woman who reminded her so much of Lily. She bit back a growl of rage. It wouldn't help Ginny...indeed, it may just frighten the poor child and disincline Poppy to allow Maya to question her.

"Well, I..." The mediwitch was cut off by the soft, child's voice coming from the bed.

"I want to talk now...to get it over with." Ginny rolled over and sat up, curling back up once she was sitting. Seeing Hermione, she smiled faintly. "You're back...I thought it might have been a hallucination."

"No, Miss Weasley, it wasn't." Maya replied softly. "I need you to tell me, in your own words, exactly what was done to you. Leave out no details, Miss Weasley." She glanced towards Madame Pomfrey, who nodded discreetly and sat with a pen and piece of paper to document the questioning on the off chance that Fudge tried his little tricks again. How that dunderhead was still a ministry employ- let alone Minister of Magic- was beyond Maya's reckoning.

The telling was long and exceedingly brutal- at Maya's request, Ginny spared no details. It hurt her to talk about it...but she still saw Maya as Hermione in her heart, so it was visibly easier on her. Not only that, but it was as if each word spoken in that bitter, self deprecating tone of voice was a weight lifted off of her young shoulders. Maya listened impassively, never judging Ginny. Nor did she pity the young woman, for that was the last thing that the redhead needed. When at long last the story had been finished and Maya had within her mind the plethora of names needed to bring those who had done this to Ginny to their justice, the witch grimly stood aside as Poppy Pomfrey forced a dreamless sleep potion down the sixth year's throat.

As the young woman drifted to sleep, Hermione turned silently, her deep purple Auror's robes billowing in a very Snapeish way as she moved for the exit. "Maya." Poppy's voice stopped her and she turned, her gaze still impassive, empty of all feeling. "Perhaps you should take a dreamless sleep potion with you...I know you haven't slept well since you returned to your proper time."

"What is my proper time anymore, Poppy?" Hermione almost seemed sad as she asked the question. Almost. When the mediwitch had no answer forthcoming, Maya nodded silently. "I will look in on her again at a later date, to see how she is doing." With that, she swooped out of the Hospital Wing, oblivious to the stares of Ron, Harry, Draco, and Blaise as they waited their turns to be checked over.

She had almost made it back to the relative security of her room when she was stopped by an irate Severus Snape. "Why did you not tell me!" He hissed. "Why did you **_hide_** when you **_knew_** how much you meant to me! How much you meant to **_Lucius_**!"

Her mind flew back to that day several months before in her office...the first- and last- time she'd succomed to dispair. She'd thought that she could be no more alone than she had been at that time. How utterly wrong she'd proven to be. "Albus and I agreed that it would do little good to force you to keep yet another secret from Voldemort, and..."

He cut her off sharply. "BAGS on Voldemort, Maya! You don't **_get_** it, do you! You've been without us for _**two** **months**_! We've had to survive without you for **_sixteen YEARS_**! Even for a witch or wizard, that is no small span of years! You **_knew_** what was going to happen, and you let it happen! What, did you plan your return all along! **_DID YOU_**! Did you play us all along! Have you no sense of honor, woman, that you can allow yourself the satisfaction of utterly **_ruining_** those that you had the gall to call friend!" He roared at her. The sixteen years younger witch stood silently and impassively before his accusations, her head bowed slightly, her eyes on the ground. Her face, however, remained impassive.

"Are you quite finished?" Her voice was so low that he barely caught it.

"...Yes." Only then did he truly begin to realize his mistake, as she remained silent, standing still for only moments before she pushed past him silently and finished the trek to her office.

Spying the door slightly open, Maya fought to keep her proud, straight shoulders from sagging. It seemd that the confrontations were not yet over. Her suspicions were confirmed when she stepped into her office to see Remus Lupin and Sirius Black waiting for her. Utterly drained and already on her way into a despair deeper than the greatest of abysses, she fought the urge to simply surrender to that despair and squared her shoulders, raising her face to meet the eyes of the werewolf standing in her office, noting as she did that Sirius refused to look anywhere near her.

Contrary to the screaming that she'd expected- indeed, that she had only moments before endured from Severus- Remus' voice was astoundingly calm. "How long have you been back?"

That calm, disappointed voice was somehow worse than Severus' heated display of rage. She fought the urge to flinch and took an extra breath to insure the steadiness of her voice before speaking. "Two months now. When I took the potion, I arrived around two days after my disappearance. I believe it was the night of the Welcoming Feast."

"Two months." Remus echoed. Maya bit her tongue, forcing herself not to wince involuntarily. "Sixty-two days or so." He stared at her for a long moment. "The Maya that I remember wasn't a coward. You are no longer an honorary Marauder. Thus voted by the two remaining Marauders. Which means that I'll need that Ring back."

This time, she did wince. She could still remember the day that- laughing- she and Lily had been given their custom-made rings proclaiming them Honorary Mauraders. It had been near the end of their Seventh Year...just after Lucius and Sirius had intervened and forced the truce between Bellatrix and Maya. Silently, she reached up for the chain around her neck, pulling it free with one hard yank that she knew would leave a chain-shaped bruise around the back of her neck. Never looking at the broken- expensive- chain or her fist...clenched around the ring that Dumbledore had forced her not to wear. ("It's too easy to recognize, Maya. I'm afraid you're going to have to give it up. Wear it on a chain beneath your clothes, if you must, but it cannot adorn your hands.")

Remus extended his right hand as well, underneath her own. He tried to glance away but her dark, chocolate-colored eyes drew his, forcing his gaze into hers as she dropped the ring into his open palm. Within those dark eyes, there lay no spark. None of the love of life that Maya had embodied. Nothing lay there but a faint flicker of hope, which winked and shivered like a candle in a stern breeze for several long moments before- to Remus' horror- it winked out.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya sat silently in her office as she heard the knock on the door, the next morning. She hadn't slept the night before- though one could not tell by looking at her- due to having to visit the Ministry of Magic and report her findings to one of the head Aurors. Since Alastor had retired, she had forced to give her report to Kingsley, who nodded quietly and took notes for a long time before- sensing that she needed a friend- inviting her to tea. That simple act of kindness, more than anything, had helped her.

"Enter." Her voice was firm and steady, and the door slid open slowly to reveal Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. "Ah, boys. I wondered if you would come."

"Why wouldn't we?" Harry asked, confused. Her smile held no warmth as she spoke next.

"Your Godfathers are rather displeased with me, to put it quite lightly."

"I can see why..." Draco said, softly. When the dark brown predator's eyes landed on him, he shivered. "I just meant...why shouldn't they be hurt that you didn't trust them enough to tell them that you were back?"

"I can see that there is no way I am going to skirt that god forsaken issue. Bags on it all!" She snapped, standing up and walking in a billow of robes to the window, staring out for a long time before spinning with a dark glare at the snickering students behind her. "What?"

"You just looked...exactly like Professor Snape." Harry managed.

"Well of course! Who do you think **_taught_** him the trick? He certainly didn't figure it out on his own! Nor did Lucius figure out the whole 'the cane is my friend' concept by himself." She snapped, walking to her desk and sitting darkly. She seemed to be stewing over something, so neither of her Godsons dared to speak up. Indeed, she was quiet for so long that she startled them when she spoke. "It isn't that I didn't trust them. It's that- to keep my cover in tact...damn you, Albus- _nobody_ could know for sure. Even Poppy- who treated me for my Travel Sickness- was not told who I was...though I do believe she probably guessed." She looked at the boys, who were serious, hanging on her every word. She sighed softly and motioned towards a pensieve in the corner.

"I compiled that for the two of you...as I am certain that Bellatrix did not bother sharing it, other than the fact that she was certain that she killed me." She said, her voice dark with self deprecation. "I felt that you two, as my godsons, deserved the knowledge more than, perhaps, anyone." They shifted slightly before walking to the pensieve and looking in. There was a long moment when she didn't think they'd do it, but in the next moment, their faces plunged into the swirling, silvery mist. Her eyes became distant as she, too, relived that battle, leaning back in her chair to wait.

When they came back up, falling ungracefully on their rears from the momentum of their return, she was waiting with tea prepared, sitting steaming on her desk. They were silent as they moved to her, sitting down and picking up their cups quietly, taking sips. They seemed to be waiting for her to speak, so she finally obliged them. "I must apologize." Expressions of surprise graced their faces. Whatever they had expected, it hadn't been this. "You see...I've missed a great deal. The majority of your lives, really. All to uphold a code that was ingrained in my mind from our Third Year."

Harry's eyes widened. "The time turner."

"Yes, Harry." It was the first time she'd used his first name since she'd returned. "The time turner. Dumbledore's warning that night, the warning to keep out of sight and to avoid changing things, was the code that I based the three and a half years of my life spent growing up with your parents and their friends and companions on. That warning simultaneously doomed you to the life of an orphan, Draco to the life of a deatheater's son, Lily and James to death, and Sirius to Azkaban. All wrapped up in a neat little package that came in two sentences."

"Professor..."

"While we are in private, and only then, the two of you may call me Maya." She cut him off, quietly. "I am, after all, your godmother."

"Maya." Harry seemed to be trying out the word. Draco was, for the moment, glad to let his 'Godbrother' talk as he studied their shared Godmother. She was beautiful, yes...it was easy to see why Sirius had fallen for her. But there was something about her now...something...missing. "How could you have done any differently than you did?" Harry was watching her. She met his eyes impassively, and he- too- felt as if something about the young witch wasn't there...that should have been. "You had to do what you did. If you had interfered, the repercussions would have been unfathomable. Had you interfered, I may have been an arrogant prick."

"How would you have known that Pettigrew was the traitor when you went back a second time?" Draco asked. "Unless you expressly told your younger self what would happen that truly didn't happen. How do you know your younger self would have gone back in time at all? How do you know you wouldn't have just...ceased to exist? There were too many variables, had you interfered. You told my father, once, that you didn't believe that History could be changed. If that's true, then no matter what you'd have done to stop it, things would have played out the way they were meant to."

"Truly, my godsons are wise." Maya sighed, whispering to herself. She pulled herself out of her thoughts a moment later and stood. "Harry. I know you have never seen your parents' graves. Nor, honestly, have I. I have much to atone for, and I find myself being pulled in the inevitable direction of their resting place. Therefore, next weekend, I will be portkeying to Godric's Hollow. If you wish to accompany me, I will speak with the Headmaster to arrange it."

"I...I'd love to." Harry stuttered.

"Good." She said, calmly. "I'll let you know the precise time sometime next week, then? Oh, and boys." They both looked at her. "I believe that some compensating is in order for all of the time that we have lost these past sixteen years. Though you have both known me for the past seven years of your lives, it was hardly as your Godmother." A wry twist of her lips let them both know that her memory was, in fact, very keen. She had not forgotten much during her foray into the past. "Shall we say...Tea? Twice a week? Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons?"

The boys thought about that for a few moments before they nodded. "Good." The twist of her lips grew, just slightly. "I will see you both in class tomorrow. I hope you have both finished that essay that was assigned last week." As they gave simultaneous groans, she chuckled to herself and escorted them out, watching them leave her classroom from the doorway of her office before sighing softly. There was only one more confrontation left...only one of both groups that she had yet to be face to face with.

...And he was walking into her classroom.

"Hello, Trevor. I see you have heard." She said, softly.

"Indeed. Severus sent me a rather emotional letter detailing exactly what...how did he put it? Oh yes...deceptions you had been carrying on these past two months." Trevor, ever the soft-spoken one of the entirity of Snake's Halo, moved to the stairs leading up to her office. With a world-weary sigh, Maya gave way, closing the door behind him. A flick of her wand vanished the cold tea sitting out from her Godsons' visit and replaced it with steaming, fresh tea. Sitting down, she looked silently at Trevor. When he did nothing more than sip his tea, she leaned back to sip her own. As he poured himself a second cup, she finally spoke.

"Aren't you going to scream at me as well?" Her words were bitter, the tone of her voice very self-hating.

"You've been screamed at enough." Was the only reply. Trevor stirred in cream and sugar before taking a long sip of his tea.

"I probably deserve it." She said sadly, staring into her tea.

"Bollocks, Maya." He said, gently reprimanding. "What has been done is done. I'm sure you had a very good reason to keep your return from us. And I'm equally certain that it's not you that I'm going to be screaming at, but Albus."

"You know...you're the first person to make that connection." She muttered miserably.

"Doesn't surprise me. You are a brilliant woman, Maya Gurgeon, but there are times when the company you keep- every single one of them down to the person- is nothing but a load of foul, greasy dunderheads." Surprised, she laughed out loud for a few moments before stopping and smiling across her desk at him.

"You're a right foul git, you know that Trevor?" She asked, but her voice lacked the proper vehemence to make the statement sting.

"And why is that?" He smiled back.

"Here I am, trying to have a proper wallow, and you won't allow it. How on earth does your wife stand you?" He laughed and stood up, moving around her desk and pulling her up into a hug.

"That's the Maya that I know and love." He whispered as she returned the hug tightly, resting her head against his chest as if he were a lifeline.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Severus Snape stormed up from his dungeons in a foul mood. Mondays. He hated them with a fiery passion akin to that which fueled the fires of the deepest pits of hell. It was the day when each of the little dunderheads dared to slack off, the day that a large majority of the explosions and other mishaps occured in his classroom. A day during which the students were still lazy from the weekend with nothing but a long, boring week ahead of them to show for it. A day which, upon that particular day, was made even worse by the fact that he had to suffer through meals with **_her_** at the same table in the Great Hall.

Dumbledore had known all along. From the time he'd realized it, Severus had held onto a sliver of hope that somehow, impossibly, Albus Dumbledore hadn't been aware of Maya Gurgeon, AKA Helen Grant, AKA Hermione Granger's deception. A hope which had been mercilessly struck down the moment that the young Defense teacher had stepped into the Great Hall and Albus had explained her deception to the students in a grave, twinkleless voice.

And then he'd had the balls to arrange it so that the only seat available upon Maya's arrival had been the one directly next to the Potions Professor.

Exactly **_how_** the bleeding twenty-three year old woman had managed to both ignore him and make him feel like he should be utterly ashamed was beyond him. She had perfected that mannerism. He could remember once or twice when she had refused to acknowledge the existence of Sirius or James for something stupid that one or the other had done...they had come to her on their knees pleading to be forgiven for whatever they had done, and she had glared at them for a good ten minutes before relenting.

He'd be **_damned_** if he was going to drop to his knees like some house elf and beg forgiveness for being in the right. If the wench wanted to ignore him, then far be it from him to contradict her highness.

Five cauldrons melted, three explosions, and a truth serum-turned-love-potion were enough to give anyone a migraine. He could feel the little demon flitting at the back of his mind like one of those infernal fairies that Lockart had had the gall to bring in five years before. However, he was expected to put in at least a mild appearance at dinner...all of the teachers were. _Damn you to hell, Albus. _Severus stepped into the Great Hall to see two empty seats at the end of the Staff Table. _No. Not again!_ He fought back a groan as he walked up to the table and sat down. After a long few minutes, Maya Gurgeon stepped into the hall. She was wearing rich red robes, and she was twirling her wand idly in one hand as she spoke to the blonde that was walking beside her.

After several moments of speech, the witch nodded and looked towards the table. She spotted the last available seat and moved to it, sitting down without even glancing in Severus' direction. He bit back a growl as she simply reached- rudely- in front of him for some turkey. He eyed the bare stretch of her arm before the pulled up sleeves of her robes and contemplated, very seriously, jabbing his fork into her flesh. That, however, would not be gentlemanlike. So he did nothing.

"Maya?" A voice came from down the table. The witch beside Severus seemed to look right through the Potions Master as she answered.

"Yes, Albus?"

"Kingsley would like to see you after dinner. I believe it's about the...ah..."

"Nevermind, Albus, I know what it's about." Severus was surprised to hear a dark, deadly pleasure enter her voice. "If you'll excuse me, I'll go attend to this...business." Again, there was that thrill of deadly pleasure.

"Of course, Maya." The Headmaster said, watching as she stood up, pausing to finish off her pumkin juice before walking out of the Great Hall in a dramatic billow of red robes. Severus snorted discreetly into his plate, glaring daggers after her. "Something wrong, Severus?" He jolted, turning to meet the twinkling gaze of the Headmaster.

"Nothing, Albus. Nothing at all." Severus snapped, stabbing his fork into the plate only to find that he'd inadvertently bent the fork in half with the strength of his grip. With another snort of discust, he chucked the fork and snatched up another, eating sullenly. He could hear the soft, barely audible snickers from Minerva and Sybill, further down the table, mingled with the small chuckle from the Headmaster, and he growled to himself.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"Maya." Kingsley Shacklebolt looked the witch up and down for a moment before his face relaxed into a smile. They had gone through training together, and he was still struck by how young she still was...the potion had preserved her youth, even though she'd been thrown through time. Her eyes, however, were much older than they should have been. "I have that information on Pettigrew that you wanted."

"Thank you, Kinglsey." She took the papers from him. "You've been most helpful."

"It's the least I could do after you rid us of Bellatrix Lestrange. Will you need backup on this?" He asked. She looked at him.

"No, thank you. Fudge can't possibly hate me any more than he already does...besides, Peter Pettigrew couldn't tie his own shoelaces without someone around to hold his hand...he will be rather easy to dispose of." Maya's eyes glinted with that same dark, deadly pleasure that Severus Snape had- only minutes before- noted. Kingsley, too, noticed...and the sight filled him with fear. It wasn't often that an Auror lost everything that they cared about- to the point that they gave no thought to the dangers of each new mission. Maya was a brilliant Auror and- unlike many of the other Aurors- Fudge had no hold on her. Her assignments came straight from "the men" themselves...the Wizengamot. Of which, Dumbledore was a part.

"Well...you have your ignasia, right?" He asked. She paused, looking at him for a long moment before shifting her robes to reveal the small charm necklace hanging beneath her clothing. All Aurors were required to wear them...they were the wizarding equivilant to a muggle soldier's dogtags. "And you'll use it?"

"Maybe." Knowing that that was the closest thing to a yes that he was likely to get, Kingsley nodded and left. Maya sighed and turned her eyes back to the papers in her hand. After a moment, the strange, deadly smile came back to her lips and she practically ran up to her rooms for her cloak, taking time only to change into her 'official' outfit and snatch up her cloak before she returned to the Entrance Hall. Dinner was finishing up by this time, and she could see Severus Snape making his way for the door of the Great Hall as she reached the tall, formidable doors. He stopped and she could feel him staring at her back, though she didn't acknowledge his presence.

Severus could understand why she had become one of the most feared Aurors in history in those few moments. She had turned at the sound of the Great Hall's doors opening and- though she didn't acknowledge him- he could see that every line of her face reminded him of a not-so-nonexistant elf. Her eyes were dark and feral, her hair held back just slightly from her face- which (besides keeping her hair out of her eyes) emphasized the sharp angles of her face that gave her an exotic look. She looked like some fierce, feral creature from the dark...and her entire being was centered on catching and bringing to justice dark wizards. For the first time, Severus found himself regretting the fact that he was on her bad side.

Maya swept out of the castle, sliding her wand into its wrist-holder as she glanced around, slipping into the bushes at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. In the next moment, a large griffen stepped back out of the forest, spreading its wings for a moment as if testing them before it vaulted into the air. Giant black wings caught the warm thermals and in the next moment the griffen was well on its way.

Maya allowed the muscles in her back to writhe uncomfortably as her long black wings folded up and sank back into her flesh, leaving her once more as a human. She didn't use her Animagus form often...it just didn't seem right without the white Griffen that had made up the 'yin' of her and Lily's private joke back in school...but this had been an exception. She'd had to get the hang of transforming swiftly and with almost no delay time, so that she would be able to catch that fool traitor, Pettigrew.

Her eyes- naturally sharp even before she'd become an animagus and twice as much so once she'd decided to become a predator, of all things- skimmed the dark landscape in front of her and she checked her muggle watch. She had a good eight hours to find Pudge, separate him from Voldemort's protection, make him wish he'd never been born, and return to Hogwarts to teach her first class. That was pushing it, even for her, but she was confident that her hatred for the rat would help speed things up. Indeed, it proved almost painfully easy to find him. He was on patrol in the graveyard beneath the old Riddle House that was Voldemort's hideout. A quick scan of the area told her that there were two Deatheaters walking to and fro in the graveyard, so that one was at each end at all times. They crossed in the middle once every ten minutes. Perfect. If she caught Pudge on the edge of the graveyard closest to her, she would have a good five minutes, at the least, before he was missed. With any luck, the other Deatheater on patrol- who she recognized as Rodolphus Lestrange- would think that Pudge had decided to take a break in the caretaker's cottage.

Slipping around, she crouched in a bush at the very edge of the graveyard, a mere yard or so away from where the deatheaters stopped in their patrolling, searching for a while before going back across the graveyard. It was Rodolphus' turn on that side of the graveyard, and she watched him as he turned and made his way back across in silence. When Peter had reached the spot and stopped, her wand was already pointed. "Oi! Pudge!" She hissed.

He gave a very ratlike squeal, spinning and pointing his new wand at her with his new hand. "Who's there? Avada..."

"Expelliarmus!" She hissed, catching the wand as it landed in her hand. He let out another squeak and she glanced across the graveyard to see that Rodolphus still wasn't in view around the caretaker's cottage. "New wand, Pudge? You shouldn't have wasted the galleons."

"Who are you?" He hissed, his eyes narrowed. "Does the Dark Lord know you're playing this prank?"

"Prank? Oh no, I'm afraid not. Into the bushes, Pudge. Don't try to transform. I can smell you from here in your human form...imagine what you must smell like as a true rat." With a yelp, he hurried into the bushes, coming face to face with his tormentor as she backed up to make room for him. His eyes widened and grew fearful as he recognized her.

"M-Maya!" He whimpered.

"Surprised, Pudge? You should have realized that I would hunt you until the ends of the earth. That you would never escape me." He whimpered. She was relentless. "Now...move along ahead of me, through the woods, out of any range whatsoever of that godforsaken mansion. As he began to walk, she could almost see him thinking of the best way to escape. Sure enough, there was a roar from behind them signalling that he was missed and he transformed the moment she glanced back. Skittering for the bushes, he suddenly found his way barred by a pair of very sharp talons.

Squeaking in fright, he ran back the other way, just to have a sharp beak drive into the dirt directly in front of him. While he was squealing, trying to avoid the beak, a whip-like tail flashed around and slammed into him, knocking the breath from him and his feet out from under him. As he lay, trying to get his breath back, a cage slammed down over him. He knew without even trying, somehow, that this cage would not be possible to chew through. She had also probably cast several unbreakable and expanding spells on it, so that it would encompass him even in his human form and no matter how he tried to break free.

Still, he had to try, and as he transformed back, the...creature...on the other side of the bars settled into a crouch, the whip tail slowly sliding around its haunches like a cat's as it watched his desperate attempts at escape. He slammed his silver fist into the bars of the cage, tried to bend them with it, even resorted to gnawing on the iron- in both rat and human forms- to no avail. When he'd finally given up, he transformed back into a rat and curled as tightly as he could in one corner of the cage, knowing that his fate was sealed. One of the creature's- for Peter had no real knowledge as to the creature's true title or name- foretalons reached out suddenly like a cat's paw, gripping a bar that was tied to a rope, much like one of the muggle contraptions that allowed boats to tow wayward muggles behind them, riding on small, polished boards.

Peter tensed, fearing what was to come. His fear was founded, for in the next moment, the creature was flying...bullet-fast, weaving through the trees and knocking the cage- and the rat inside of it- around quite brutally. Bursting from the treetops in a shower of leaves, an explosion of branches, and an escort of birds, The creature beat its long wings- at least four feet, each, in span- several times hard before catching a warm thermal and soaring.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Draco and Harry walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts the next day to see a cage strapped firmly to the desk. They stared at the rat within for a long moment before Ron, who approached behind them, recognized it and gave a shout. "SCABBERS!"

"What? Are you sure, Ron?" Harry asked. The rat looked up and seemed to be pulling at the bars. One of its forepaws- the right one- was an odd, gray color.

"I think I'd know my own rat, Harry! Blimey, that means!"

"Mister Weasley." The voice of their teacher spoke from the front of the room. "Please take your seat. You as well, Mister Malfoy." Maya stepped slowly down the stairs leading from her office. "Mister Potter, remain where you are, please."

Once the rest of the class had filed in, their teacher reached easily into her desk and pulled out a long, strangely shaped wand. It was twisted and unpolished...just like the wizard who had handled it. "Today, class, you will learn about a debt owed and a debt paid, as the old saying goes." She motioned Harry to one side so that the class could all see her. He stepped to the corner opposite of the rat's cage. "You see, it is a very, very grave thing...to take a life. Especially in a betrayal or a war, such as this. You never know when the friends or family of those who have been wronged will seek to take their revenge...their justice." Harry had an idea where this was going, and he stared hard at their teacher. "However, be warned." Their teacher's voice took on a very Snape-like drawl...ensuring that their attention was on her.

"To take one's revenge is also a very dark thing. Often, only those who have naught to lose will attempt it. In this case, however." She pushed herself off of the corner of her desk, where she had been leaning. She knew that Severus Snape would hear of this, and she cared not. Gripping the twisted, tormented length of wood between her slim hands, she broke it in half smoothely. From the corner, the rat let out a squeal of rat-ish dismay. Setting both halves of the wand into one hand, Maya turned to face Harry, extending her wand hand with the wand halves clasped within.

"Mr. Potter, please step forward." He did so, and she nodded to him, presenting him with the broken wand. His hand closed over the ends of the wand as he stared up at her in awe. "In accordance to the unspoken laws of both Vengeance and Justice, I give you the wand of the wizard that sealed the fate of your parents."

"Thank you, Professor." Harry said, firmly. By this time, the rat was throwing itself against the bars of the cage in a clear attempt to kill itself. Once Harry was seated, the witch at the head of the classroom spun towards the cage.

"Stop that, unless you want to be tied up as well as caged, you filthy, miserable little wretch!" She snarled. The dirty, ragged rat let out a frightened squeak and fell completely silent.


	4. Chapter 3: Betrayed!

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.  
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_I am SO sorry about the mixup on these chapters! I accidentally copied the third chapter off of the document with all of the chapters on it and posted it as chapter 2 first! So...as an apology, here is the third chapter! I suggest waiting to read it until after you read Chapter 2, though!_

_**Again, I'm SOOOOO sorry! At least you get two updates in one day, this time!**_

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

**Chapter 3**

_Sirius Black's name has been cleared. I cannot find the words to truly express my happiness at this. Peter Pettigrew's presence forced Fudge and the Wizengamot to acknowledge that Sirius was innocent. The information secured by Kingsley Shacklebolt on the case against Sirius proved to be invaluable, accusing him of murdering Pudge and a street-full of muggles. The reappearance of Pudge and a quick 'Priori Incantatem' on his old wand- taken into custody for the case against Sirius- showed immediately that Fudge was wrong._

_Pudge has been executed. He tried to escape when Alastor and I took him to Azkaban, and so I stopped him in the quickest way possible. The guards would testify for me, should it be necessary. It seems that even without the Dementors, Azkaban is frightening._

_They are calling for Fudge's "Early Retirement" as we speak. It seems that this is the icing on the cake...the general public is royally pissed that Fudge condemned an innocent man to twelve years in Azkaban. I wonder why. Yes, that was sarcasm. Anyway, Fudge has been voted out of office, and it's about time if you ask me. They're voting to elect a new minister. Albus won't let me follow this election as closely as I want...which makes me wonder just exactly who the canidates for Minister are. Percy Weasley, I'm sure...he has always been ambitious. Dumbledore, no doubt, will be the second. I don't know why the public bothers...he will not accept the position. They'd be better off electing someone else._

_Then again...nobody asked me._

_**Maya Gurgeon**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya was marking essays silently in her office when Albus knocked delicately on the door. "Maya? The results of the election are in the Daily Prophet today..." He seemed to hesitate, and then he handed her the newspaper. Frowning, she took it from him and looked at it.

**"Long-Lost Auror Elected Minister of Magic"**

Frowning, Maya turned her eyes to Albus, who seemed almost worried about what she would do. Narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously, she read on.

_Many citizens have forgotten the War Hero, Maya Gurgeon, whose strange appearance in her seventh year with the infamous James and Lily Potter left everyone wondering where she had come from. However, recent events have forced the public to not only acknowledge this woman, but hear her story. "It is a tragic story of epic proportions," says Albus Dumbledore, reknowned Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "Maya Gurgeon has suffered much in her life, she knows exactly how devastating this war is." Miss Gurgeon, formerly known as Hermione Granger, has brought an array of Dark Witches and Wizards to justice since her return, including the infamous Bellatrix Lestrange- a known, demented, supporter of You-Know-Who- Gregory Goyle Senior, and Vincent Crabbe Senior._

_After an accident nearly three months ago with a time turner, Miss Gurgeon spent four years growing up and maturing in the past- from the year 1985 until the year 1989- before she was able to research and formulate a potion that would return her to her "proper" time. Though there has been some controversy over her actions in the past, the Wizengamot has agreed unanimously that Maya Gurgeon behaved in accordance to the current laws while in the past, even resulting in Miss Gurgeon losing the trust and love of everyone who once knew her, including her ex-fiance, Sirius Black._

_"Maya will be a wonderful Minister of Magic." Said Cornelius Fudge, former Minister, "She is a brilliant Auror, and she cannot be swayed by any means of questionable pursuasion. Over the years, Auror Gurgeon has brought more Dark Wizards to justice than, perhaps, even Alastor Moody."_

_"Maya was my partner for two and a half years." Grizzled Auror, Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody stated. "I would be proud to serve under her as Minister."_

Disgusted, Maya flung the paper into the air. Her wand was in her hand moments later. "INCENDIO!" The paper burst into flames and she turned her dark, reproachful eyes to Albus. "You nominated me for Minister of Magic?" She hissed.

"Technically Alastor nominated you." He pointed out. "The Wizengamot merely supported your election. That was more than enough to turn the election in your favor."

"What does Percy Weasley have to say about this?" She asked, her eyes narrowed.

"My dear, who else do you think contested the legality of your actions nineteen years ago?" Albus asked, arching one eyebrow. "This is not a bad thing, Maya."

"You don't get it, Albus! I don't **want** to be famous! I would be content to lay down and **die**!" She ranted. "I'll just have to decline! Yes, that's it! Percy can have the position!" She then started thinking about it, and then cursed. "Bags on it all! If I decline the position, the Wizengamot will think I think I'm too good for the position. But if I accept, the public will think that I'm trying to take advantage over them!" Albus sat down and pulled a lemon drop out of his pocket, slipping it into his mouth as he watched the brilliant witch before him pace. "I've got it!" She was on her way to the fireplace with a pinch of floo powder before the last word was out of her mouth. Shoving her face into the fire, she called out.

"Percy! Percy Weasley, get your sorry arse in here and talk!" Percy must have entered the room on the other end of the floo connection, because Hermione's voice held satisfaction as she continued. "Ah, there you are. I..." She seemed to be listening to the redhead rant. Finally tiring of it, Albus watched in amusement as she roared "**_ENOUGH_**! I don't **_care_** what you think of me, Percible Agostus Weasley, but you will **_SHUT UP AND LISTEN_** to me right this instant!" It must have worked, because when she continued, it was in a much more reasonable tone of voice. "Now. I don't want this bloody position any more than you want me to have it, but the Wizengamot's support and the nomination from the Aurors put me in a sticky situation. No I will NOT discuss it through a floo network. You can come to Hogwarts. I'm sure Albus is tired of staring at my ass, and that he'd enjoy hearing what I plan to do, as well." She yanked her head out of the fire and walked to her seat, sitting down. As Percy Weasley stormed through the fire moments later, she simply looked up at him mildly.

"What's your plan, Gurgeon?" He hissed.

"Don't call me Gurgeon if you like your male genitals where they are." She commented mildly, pleased to see him turn pale. "My plan is to share the position." She picked up a quill and dipped it into red ink, continuing to mark the essays that she'd been working on at Albus' appearance. Thus occupied, she didn't see the jaws of both of the wizards land on the floor in their shock.

"W-what!" Percy stuttered. "You can't be serious!"

"Of course not. That's my..." She stopped, a strange look on her face as she battled with the impulse to finish the statement. Clearing her throat, she looked up. "Why not?" Her face was completely empty of expression. Only Albus- who was very skilled at reading everyone and had worked closely with her since the beginning of the year- saw the stricken look in her eyes.

"It's simply not done!" Percy exclaimed, standing up.

"Why not?" The witch repeated, dipping her quill back in the ink and returning to her marking.

"It would be a breach of tradition..." Albus said, slowly.

"Well of course it would be." Maya snapped, writing down a grade first on the essay that she had just finished marking and then in the muggle-style gradebook to one side of the desk. "That's the entire point. We throw Voldemort's supporters off-balance and satisfy most everyone. There's little to no chance on Percy and I agreeing on anything whatsoever, so the general public shouldn't think that we're conspiring against them. This also gives me more freedom to continue teaching and being an Auror."

"It...could work..." Percy admitted, his interest piqued. He plopped down in his chair and leaned forward. "One of us to handle the war, the other to handle the debts and stuff?" He asked.

"With veto priveledges." She stated. At his confused look, she sighed. "In the States, there are three branches of government, all of which can veto each other. The Americans have screwed over the system...but veto priveledges basically means that we both have to sign off on all laws, all debt agreements, etcetera."

Percy frowned, thinking it over. It made sense... "Alright." He agreed, albeit reluctantly.

"Great. Now all that's left is to work out how to get the Ministry to instate both of us." She said, looking up at Albus, who fidgeted.

"I'll see what I can do..." He said. "I'm not promising anything else, Maya."

"That's all we're asking, Headmaster." Percy said, seeing his Co-Minister turn her full attention back to the essays.

"May I walk you out, Percy? Or would you prefer to use Maya's floo?" Albus asked.

"I'll walk with you, Headmaster. It'll be good for me to see the school again...it's been so long, after all." They left, closing the door and leaving the Defense Professor to her solitude. She sighed, closing her eyes. She and Harry would be leaving in ten minutes to go visit Lily and James. They would be spending that night at Maya's mansion before returning to Hogwarts the following morning. Which meant that she had to finish marking the essays within ten minutes. It was a very good thing, she thought wryly, that she only had one more essay to finish.

As she was on the last paragraph of the essay, a knock came at her door. "Enter." She called, preoccupied, reading a sentence twice to make sure that she'd read it correctly. _The proper way to kill a vampire is to throw ground and dried garlic at it? Good grief, this poor child has been reading Lockhart!_ Dipping her quill in the red ink, she wrote out a note at the bottom of the essay. _Miss Carson, the proper way to kill a vampire is not to throw ground and dried garlic at it! I suggest that you choose a book that ISN'T written by someone in St. Mungo's extended care psychotics ward._

Jotting down the grade, Maya capped her red ink and looked up, finally. "Ah, Harry. Thank you for waiting. Are you ready?" She smiled as he nodded and stood up, reaching into one drawer for an old muggle camera. Holding it out, she nodded when Harry grabbed it. "Hold on, Harry." She warned, picking up her duffle bag and tapping the portkey with her wand. "_Portus Corthus._" At the activation key, the portkey immediately rushed Harry and his Godmother off to Godric's Hollow.

Harry looked around the graveyard quietly before turning to Maya, who had gone very still beside him. She was looking at something a short ways off and, following her gaze, he looked to see two gravestones. He wasn't sure how, exactly, he knew...but he knew in his heart that there, under those stones, rested his parents. "Maya...I..."

She seemed to pull herself out of a trance as she looked at him and smiled encouragingly. "Go ahead. I will hang back until you are finished." Glad that she'd been so understanding, Harry moved from her side to the graves. It occured to him, as he knelt in the snow between the graves, that she had shown a remarkable ammount of restraint by allowing him to go first. When he glanced discreetly over his shoulder, he saw that his godmother had turned away to give him privacy. He turned back to the stones quietly.

When Maya felt Harry approaching, she turned and looked at him. His eyes were too bright and he was wiping his face on his sleeve, so she left him to his privacy and walked to the gravestones. Looking down at them, she felt a plethora of feelings rise within her, not the least of which was guilt. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, touching the angel statue on top of Lily's grave and the stag statue on top of James'. "I should have been there. I should have been your secret keeper. There are so many things that I should have done..." After a long moment, she turned to Lily's grave. "Oh Lils...I still remember the day I met you. I was there for you through so much...I should have been there." She touched the angel gently once more before taking a deep breath. Turning, she walked back to where Harry was waiting.

He seemed about to say something, but thought better of it when he saw the look on her face. Sighing silently, Maya looked at him. "You know how to apparate, don't you Harry?"

"Well, I'm not great at it yet, but yes..." He said, hesitantly.

"Good. I'm going to apparate. No, don't worry...just hold my hand and concentrate very hard on apparating to the exact same place that I'm going to. Ready?"

"I suppose so, Professor."

"Harry, I told you, it's Maya."

"Sorry Maya..." He said softly.

"Okay, ready? Three...two...one." On cue, both of them turned backwards, concentrating, only to appear in the living room of a very big mansion. Harry stared around in awe. His godmother took note of his awe and smiled. "Welcome to the house where you spent your first ten months of life, Harry." She said. "You learned to walk and talk in this very place." She then turned towards the kitchen. "Libby!" A house elf skittered out of the kitchen.

"Oh Mistress Maya is back! Libby is so pleased!" The elf gushed.

"Yes, thank you Libby." Maya said kindly. "Would you please see to it that dinner is prepared for Harry and I tonight? We will be staying until tomorrow afternoon, so we will need breakfast in the morning and lunch tomorrow, as well."

"Libby will make the preparations...and Libby must say, Mistress, that it is wonderful to have you back. We has missed you, that we has." Libby said before disappearing. Harry glanced at the woman standing beside him...she was still impassive...before beginning to- hesitantly- explore the room. After a long moment, Maya shifted.

"Harry, come with me." With that, she walked towards the staircase in one corner, walking up it as it wound around. Surprised, Harry ran after her, slowing only once he'd caught up with her halfway down the hall at the top of the stairs. Arriving at a second, much steeper staircase, Maya walked up it without glancing about. Harry frowned slightly, sensing someone moving in one of the rooms as he passed, before following her up the stairs. He stopped, looking around at the room.

"This is where it happened...isn't it. This is where you and Bellatrix..."

"Yes." She cut him off. "This is where I took the potion that sealed my fate." She seemed to shake herself out of a reverie as she walked calmly to one blank wall and murmured something. To Harry's surprise, a portion of the wall slid away to reveal a door. "After you, Harry." Maya said. After a wary glance at her, he ducked through the doorway. The wall slid closed behind Maya as she walked into the room and over to a desk in a corner. "This, Harry, is the only room that was perfectly preserved in my absence. You will find books in here that you will never find anywhere else...it is the most extensive library in the United Kingdom. Some of these books were gifts...others were confiscated from the Dark Wizards that I caught. Still others, I bought." She sighed softly. "Many of them are on time travel and how it may be done. It was in this room that I brewed the potion that brought me back to this time."

Harry looked at her as she spoke. It was obvious that she was no longer truly speaking to him...but merely stating the facts aloud. When she'd been silent for a while, he spoke softly. "Maya?"

Hermione looked over at him and gave a small smile. "Sorry about that." She walked to a desk in a corner and pulled out a file. "I brought you up here, Harry, to give you this." She handed him the folder. "I am under oath not to allow it out of this room. However, I am no longer an Honorary Marauder...and therefore the oath preventing me from giving it to you no longer exists. I must caution you, however, that this is very dangerous magic, Harry. I suggest you read through **all** of your father's notes before attempting it. I will be here when you attempt it...and you will not argue with me. Understood?" When he nodded, she smiled faintly before walking to the bookcase. "You are free to study that while I work on a project that I've taken up."

"Thank you, Maya..." Harry whispered as he sat down on a comfortable couch, curling up and reading the notes. He was aware of the witch selecting several tomes and carrying them back to her desk, sitting down to read.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Harry looked up at his Godmother from his animagus form, concentrating as she had instructed him to until he turned back into a human. "That was bloody brilliant!" He gasped. Maya gave a tight smile as she tucked the notes back into the drawers.

"Now that you know how to perform the spell, you can do it twice more on Ginny and Ron. After that, I must ask that you put that particular incantation to the very back of your memory where you will never be tempted to use it again." His godmother told him. "Also, Sirius or I must be present when you cast the spell on Ginny and Ron." Her voice was firm. "I am curious, however, as to why you chose a Ferret. I would think your taste would run more along the lines of your Father's."

She watched in growing amusement as he squirmed. "Fourth year," he mumbled. "Ferrets have been my favorite animal since Fourth Year."

"I see. Well-" She was cut off by Libby, who appeared with a pop.

"Mistress! Libby has prepared dinner for you and young Master Potter!"

"Thank you, Libby. We'll be right down." Maya assured. As the elf bowed before disappearing, she turned and walked towards the door to the practice room that would take them back into the library.

"Maya? Why do you have House elves? I always thought..."

"That I couldn't stand making them do labor?" Maya smiled this time...a true smile. "I changed a lot when I was gone, Harry." She said, gently. "Libby was my first House Elf. She helped me to see that House Elves actually enjoy being owned by others. It's an almost masochistic desire." She sealed the library once more before turning and walking down the stairs.

Harry walked into the kitchen ahead of Maya and stopped short. She had paused to look at a picture of Snake's Halo hanging on the wall, a sad smile on her face, but as she walked up behind Harry, the smile disappeared. "What do you want, Black?" Her voice went steely.

Sirius jumped at the sound of that voice, and he looked up to see the witch that had once been his fiancee. The woman that had once been his closest confidant...one of two Honorary Maruaders...the only two in history. For months before he'd gotten beneath her walls, she'd hated him. It had been nineteen years since he'd last heard that steely, uncompromising tone in her voice. "Maya..." He stood up, looking at her. Harry had moved out of the way in case of a fight, but neither Maya nor Sirius truly noticed. "Maya." Sirius repeated, taking a step towards her. Her face showed nothing, but she remained still, watching him.

There were no true words for what happened next. A series of pops had Maya turning around, her wand out, even as Harry's eyes widened. "SIRIUS! GET HARRY **_OUT_**!" Maya shouted. Acting immediately to the urgency in her tone, Sirius vaulted the table in one swift move and grabbed Harry's wrist.

"Apparate with me, Harry!" He said. "_HURRY!_" Without waiting for an answer, Sirius spun backwards, taking Harry with him as he apparated away...moments before the Deatheaters stepped into the dining room.

"Well, well...if it isn't Maya Gurgeon. The new Minister of Magic herself." Sneered a deep voice that Maya recognized from her seventh year.

"Flint. What a surprise." She had vanished the table non-verbally and now stood in the center of the room, watching as the Deatheaters all crowded around and behind McNair, watching her with their wands pointed.

"You're coming with us, Minister." Sneered one.

"Do you have an appointment?" Maya drawled, flicking her wand. A turkey flung itself from the vanished table and into the head of one of the Deatheaters. When they hesitated before casting spells, she smirked to herself. They weren't there to kill her. Oh goody...an invitation to visit a demented psychopath!

"Do we need one?" Flint sneered.

"Well. I **_am_** Minister of Magic, after all." Another flick and a pie flung itself into their ranks. "I'm a busy woman." She pointed her wand over her shoulder. "Stupefy!" There was a cry behind her, allowing her to locate the second wizard. "Petrificus Totalus!" The group in front of her was shifting nervously by this time. Maya fought the urge to grin viciously. They were treating her as if she were a very dangerous person.

She loved it.

Her eyes, by chance, caught the dark, storm-cloud-gray eyes of one of the Deatheaters and she paused. Intellectually, she'd known that he had become a deatheater...but somehow, actually seeing him wearing the mask was still a great disappointment. Well practiced at hiding her feelings, however, she didn't show it. "The Dark Lord would like to...speak...with you." Flint said, finally.

"Oh I'm sure he would. After all, I've heard that he just **_loves_** giving office-warming gifts to the new Ministers." Maya said mildly. The deatheaters stiffened. Gray eyes held a hint of laughter. "Lucius." She said, her voice still mild. "I must say...it hardly does you any good to ask what **_I_** have done when you're the one under a white skull mask."

She saw immediately that she'd hit a button as he tensed, lifting his wand. "Expelliarmus!" Prepared, she skipped easily to one side, reaching up and catching the wand of the deatheater behind her whom the spell had hit instead as it flew past. Pausing, she broke it smoothly and tossed the pieces to the ground. She heard a cry of rage from behind her and sidestepped as the man who was trying to tackle her flew by. Her wand aimed for him easily.

"Stupefy." Her eyes never left Lucius'. "Have you done any reading on Soul Mates lately, Lucius?" She asked, twirling her wand idly. Thus far, she'd taken out five Deatheaters...with at least four more to go. The two that had been hit with food had, ironically, been knocked unconscious. "No? Well, I must say that Artengia Metronson has a very interesting theory on it, if I do say so myself."

She paused, her eyes moving to Flint as he spoke. "Give up, Gurgeon. We're four on one. You don't stand a chance."

"No, I suppose I don't." She commented. "But you'll forgive me, I hope, if I don't come willingly. You see...I can't quite work a visit to a maniac's lair in the custody of his brownnosing followers into my schedule." She saw Flint stiffen and she smirked. "Inpedimenta!" The deatheaters scrambled aside so that the spell hit the wall, but she was already moving. "Petrificus Totalus!" Sending a barrage of other curses at them, they finally disapparated.

"Stupe-" Maya spun, lifting her wand.

"Expelliarmus!" She caught the wand easily and stupefied the deatheater. The others disapparated immediately...not wanting to face her any longer. With a look of disgust, Maya accioed the rest of the wands to her and bound the deatheaters before apparating with them to the Ministry.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Sirius paced silently in Albus Dumbledore's office, back at Hogwarts. Albus himself sat behind his desk with his fingers steepled. Though he did not show it, he too was worried. Harry had long since been sent to bed, leaving his Godfather and the Headmaster alone to worry and wonder about what had happened in the mansion once Sirius and Harry had escaped. The fire turned green, suddenly, which had both wizards spinning towards it, looks of fearful anticipation on their faces as Alastor Moody's face appeared. "Dumbledore...you'd best come see this yourself."

Immediately, Sirius was at the fireplace. "What's happened, Alastor?" But the Auror was already gone.

Albus walked to the fireplace and took a pinch of floo powder. "Come along, Sirius." He tossed the powder into the fireplace and stepped in. "Ministry of Magic: Magical Law Enforcement!" And with that, he was gone. Sirius sighed as he picked up a pinch of floo powder and followed.

They stepped out to see Maya standing off to one side, smacking off the probing hands of a mediwizard who- from the looks of him- had been trying for a while. She looked quite cross indeed as he pulled out a needle and thread and began stitching up a long cut on her bare shoulder the muggle way. She scowled dangerously at the mediwizard, who swallowed hard before speaking. "I'm sorry, Minister, but it hasn't reacted to any of the spells that either of us has tried. You refuse to go to St. Mungos..." Her face was positively murderous at the mention of the name. "And..." He gulped again. "This is the only other way to do up the wound. You can't go around with it open...you'll bleed to death!"

"Thank you for that wonderfully _encouraging_ diagnosis, doctor. I couldn't have figured it out _myself_ after all...I'm only the _stupid_ Minister of Magic!" She sneered.

"Come now, Maya." Percy Weasley said from the corner as he smiled innocently at his Co-Minister. "It's not _that_ horrible, is it?"

"Well I don't know, why don't I show you?" She pulled away from the mediwizard, almost causing him to yank the stitches from her shoulder as she raised her wand.

"Maya." Albus said, mildly, halting her movement. She cast one more glare towards the redhead in the corner before turning to Hogwarts' Headmaster.

"Albus. Since Black is with you, I'm assuming that my godson is safely tucked away in Hogwarts." She said, mildly. The mediwizard seemed astounded at her complete change of mood...though he wasn't about to take it for granted...and used the opportunity to hurriedly continue stitching her wound.

"That he is...though he did seem a bit shaken up from the experience." Albus stated.

"Understandable, considering that ten Deatheaters decided to impose their presence on my home." Her amiable mood forgotten and her patience with the mediwizard officially gone, Hermione turned to him with a snarl. "Go make a shirt or something if you want to keep using that damned needle and thread!" With a yelp, the mediwizard fell back, thankful that he had just finished the final stitch. Maya chased him out of the room before slamming the door behind him and crossing her arms, leaning on the door.

"Exactly what happened to you?" Albus asked, eyeing her.

"She brought in six deatheaters single-handedly." Alastor said, eyeing Hermione. "And then the fool went back to her house to clean up and make sure the House Elves- of all things- were unharmed." Maya glared right back as the auror stared at her. Giving up the futile staring contest, Moody looked back at Albus. "She won't tell us for sure, but I'm betting that there was someone lying in wait for her when she arrived back. She apparated into my office spouting blood from about twenty places and cursing fit enough to make a dwarf blush."

Sirius looked at the young woman in alarm from where she stood leaning against the door...only now taking in the state of her once pristine blue robes. They were singed and burnt in several places, and there were chunks missing from the clothes underneath in random places...where there were small scars in some places and more stitches in others. Across her tanned stomach- where a particularly large piece of cloth was missing- there was a line of stitches. "Maya..." He whispered.

She flicked her eyes towards him before turning her death glare back to Alastor as if daring him to continue. "What little we have got out of her is that Marius Flint, Bastian Veal, and Victor Kiebel were three of the deatheaters that escaped her the first time." Percy said mildly, causing the drilling, dagger-shooting brown eyes to turn in his direction. "She won't tell us who the fourth was."

Sirius and Albus exchanged glances before turning to look at Maya. She glanced at them and did a double take, her glare turning even more potent than before, if that was possible. "What?" She hissed. "If all you're going to do is go over what **_I_** already told you, then I'm out of here." With that, she turned, yanked the door open, and stormed out, slamming it behind her. She didn't care that it was slightly childish...she was more concerned by the fact that she was tired- both from the physical exertion of the battles and so much rapid spellcasting- that she was sore- she was going to **_kill_** Rodolphus Lestrange!- and that she was not in the mood to go over what **_she_** had been the one to tell Alastor earlier.

Walking down the hallway energetically...the burnt and torn robes only emphasizing the fact that she was a very scary woman as they billowed around her...Maya stormed into the Minister's office and slammed the door behind her. Only once she was out of sight of the general public did she slow down, moving much more tenderly due to her stitches and the bruises that she had been very careful not to let the mediwizard in all of his idiocity find. Inching into the chair behind the desk, she looked at the documents there waiting for the signatures of herself and Percy both. Albus had written up the magical contract for the Co-Ministers to sign, and as soon as she'd gotten there the first time she and Percy had signed...sealing the contract and making every other document in the ministry requiring the Minister's signature now forced to require duel signatures.

Making a face, she began reading.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

_...soul mates are traditionally believed to be one's perfect love-match. In recent studies, however, a pattern has become more and more evident with each experiment. It seems that, unlike tradition has stated, soul mates are not one's perfect love-match. They are, instead, someone that one is so close to that one could never think of the other in more than a platonic way._

Maya glared at the familiar calligraphy in the book that she was reading through once more. She had told Lucius to read it, and was now looking through it just in case he took it upon himself to confront her. Slamming the book closed as she heard her seventh years enter the room beyond, Maya grabbed her wand and took a deep breath, standing swiftly despite the protest of her stitches and walking equally swiftly to the door of her office and out of it. She allowed herself to slow- charitably, she thought- on the stairs, before walking to the desk at the head of the classroom and easing her aching body into her chair.

Draco, the more perceptive of her two godsons, must have noticed...for he narrowed his dark eyes- so much like his father's- and watched her warily. She took a steadying breath before she began to speak. "Today, we will be working on the Transmorphus Curse and its effects. Both the effects on the caster and the victim." She pulled out a packet of papers and forced herself to her feet, walking slowly across the room, passing the papers out. "You will need to fill out these packets as well as read the chapter- Chapter Eighteen for those of you who have not bothered to look at the index of the books that you've, after all, only had for two monts- in your textbook. The packets will count as if they were an essay...so I suggest that some of you..." Here, she shot a look towards Parvati and Lavender. "...not wait until the last minute..." Her eyes swept to Ron and Harry. "...to try to finish it."

She marvelled, slightly, that she was just as feared and hated as Severus Snape...the dread potions master of the school. It was amazing what billowing robes, refusal to bend rules at any cost, and a low, silky drawl could do.

Unbeknownst to her, the very object of her thoughts was standing silently outside of her door, watching her and thinking very similar thoughts himself. However, he could see that her calculated, robe-billowing stride was slightly more hesitant than before...a stiffness that forced her to calculate her stride even further than normal...her steps slightly less smoothe than they would be if she were completely healthy. As the witch launched into a lecture about the Transmorphus curse, Severus took note of the way that she seemed to have eyes in the back of her head, taking points with an unbiased equality that had him amused.

As her students filed out past him, she sank into her chair once more and he could hear her give a soft, stifled groan of pain. Without any warning, he swooped in. She was on her feet in seconds, wand pointed at him for all of two seconds before it disappeared to wherever she kept it in her robes. "Severus." Her voice was surprised, but not unfriendly. "What can I do for you?" She remained on her feet, though he saw that she descreetly rested one hand on her desk to keep herself from staggering and he wondered just how much damage the ambush at her mansion the day before had done.

"I've come to..." He began formally, breaking off and looking at her quietly for a long moment before he sighed softly and approached her slowly. She watched him suspiciously, and he knew that her paranoia kept her wand within reach...though he didn't hold that knowledge against her. "Maya, I acted a fool. Could you ever forgive me for being such an unequalled ass?"

"Severus...you know that I forgave you the moment that you said the words." She said, gently. "You were right. Everything that you said...it was all correct." She sighed. "Come...let us talk in my office. You don't have class, I trust?" When he shook his head, she nodded and walked to the stairs. His practiced eye once again confirmed his earlier suspicions. The witch's normally fluid stride was broken, just slightly.

"Maya...who was it? Yesterday...who ambushed you?" He asked, the moment they were in her office and the door was closed. Her eyes went hard for a few moments before she spoke.

"Rodolphus Lestrange." She said, shortly. It was obviously not a subject up for discussion.

"I'll kill him." He snarled, moving for that door.

"I hold that priveledge." Her voice was cold. He turned to look at her. There was something that she wasn't telling him. Something that she had, previously, been able to keep hidden.

"What happened, Maya?" He asked. She glared at him for a long moment before seeming to come to a choice in her mind. She was out the door before he could truly fathom her movement...and he saw that her pain- when she put her mind to something- didn't slow her a wit.

"Come on, Severus. This is not the place for this discussion."

Only when they were seated in her quarters sipping tea did she speak again...and this time, Severus listened without speaking to the horrors that had unfolded in the mansion.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Hermione apparated into the mansion to see Libby ironing her hands. "Libby! What's wrong?" She asked, still breathing slightly heavily from the exhersion.

"Libby is so sorry Mistress! Libby would not haved purchased that awful awful elf if Libby had known!" The elf wailed. Maya had told her to purchase as many additional elves as would be needed to get the Mansion back to its proper state of warmth and care.

"Which elf?"

"That awful awful Otty!" Libby sobbed. "Libby purchased him from Master Malfoy!" She bent over, snivelling, and the witch watching her felt as if shards of ice were shooting into her heart. "He told the awful awful deatheaterses that Mistress was here." Her words were punctuated by another wail.

_**Lucius? Surely not, Maya...Lucius would never betray you!**_

_That, Severus, is what I thought as well. But Libby's words rang true, so I had to look into the elf that she spoke of._

Maya stared unforgivingly at the elf that was bowing before her. He had just- under the threat of being given clothes- admitted to having set Maya, Harry, and Sirius up to be attacked. "You are forbidden to leave this house, use the floo, or speak to a witch, wizard, or creature in general other than myself and Libby. These orders are magically binding. Should you disobey any of them, you will immediately be given a sock and sent on your wretched little way." She snarled. "And I must warn you, Otty." Her voice was frightening and terrible to the tiny elf. "When I buy an elf and it enters my service, it does so with the understanding that should I give it clothes, its mind and the memories of working with me will be suitably altered so that no compromising information may be given out. In short, Otty, you are now condemned to a life of silence and solitude for your betrayal."

"A pity. He was rather useful." The voice came from behind her. Maya's wand was out before she finished turning. "Sectumsempra!" Hermione dove to one side, though the spell hit her across the stomach in a glancing blow.

"Lucius...why?" She asked, gritting her teeth.

"Because I told him to." Her pained eyes were drawn to Rodolphus Lestrange as he walked into the room. "And because you killed my Bella."

"Sectumsempra!" While her attention was on Rodolphus, Lucius spoke the spell again. Something about his voice was off, Maya noted distantly as she took the spell full force across her shoulderblades. The blood began to run down her robes with each time they were torn open.

"Bellatrix meddled with forces that she should not have." Maya grit out, lifting her wand. "Crucio!" The spell hit Rodolphus...but strangely, it was Lucius that screamed out with pain. Startled, Maya immediately released the spell.

"Sectumsempra!" She had turned to look at Lucius in puzzlement, and the spell caught her across the stomach again...full force this time. Gripping at the wound, she stumbled backwards to lean on the wall, blood pooling around her feet. She was losing too much blood too fast. With each time that Lucius hit her, she lost another fountain of blood...and she didn't have the heart to attack Lucius. Also, from the botched Cruciatus curse moments before, it seemed as if any attempt to attack Lestrange would hurt Lucius instead. Therefore, she had no choice but to concede that the battle was lost.

Libby, on the other hand, had no such reservations about attacking Lucius. Nor did Hermione's second most loyal house elf, Batty. The two of them worked together to begin driving the two Deatheaters out of their domain. They could not, however, protect their swiftly weakening mistress from the Sectumsempra spells aimed at her by both Lucius and Rodolphus...and several more landed before Maya dropped behind a couch, her blood pooling about her and her head spinning from the loss of the vital fluid. She was aware of the elves pushing out the intruders and sealing the house. She would, of course, have to create more permanent seals later...but as she stood, she swayed on her feet.

With one last look at Libby, who waved her hands in a 'shoo'ing motion, Maya closed her eyes and disapparated


	5. Chapter 4: Ambush

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.**

**A big thanks and a shout out goes to:**

**Idancer – If you haven't already, I want you to reread Chapters Two and Three...because I accidentally screwed up the update**

**The Gryffindor Drummer – I try to keep a chapter ahead of the updates. That means that I always have one chapter in pending while I work on the chapter that is two chapters after the one that you are reading.**

**Warg – You know the saying 'If you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut'? Well. Put that saying in practice in your reviews. Yes, it's dramatic. YES, that was humorous. Do you know why? BECAUSE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE! Ooh. What a concept. And they were not acting like Ten-Year-Olds. They were treating Maya like she was a very, very dangerous person. Which she is.**

**Mr. Bob – Well...you'll just have to find out what prompted Lucius to do that, hm? And yeah...I always wind up spelling privilege wrong. It's one of those few words that pisses me off.**

**Serlene – It wouldn't be a tragedy if she had a heartwarming moment, would it? You'll REALLY hate me next chapter. Hell...I hate myself for the next chapter.**

**amrawo – I'm glad you enjoyed them.**

**DarkRaven-04 – Glad you liked it.**

**Keeroshu – I'm glad you enjoy this story. It's one of my favorites.**

**DeepWaterAngel – Don't beg. It's not becoming.**

**Azari Kaiya Son – Well duh I'm continuing. It's not finished yet!**

**FireBringer – I'm glad you enjoy the dark, twistedness of this story. It is a lot darker than Kicking Buckets...which was inevitable, really. I'm satisfied with the path that Spinning Bottles is taking.**

_**Alright. Just to be cruel and sadistic, I'm going to let you guys in on a little secret. In the next chapter, Chapter 5, there will be a SIGNIFICANT character death. In fact, this character was significant enough that I had to change one of the genres to Tragedy. I'll let you guys think about this...and stew over it...while waiting for my next update.**_

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

**Chapter 4**

_I do not believe that Lucius would attack me of his own free will. Nor does Severus. It is one of the few things that we have both agreed on since my return to this time period. If I did not care so much for Severus, I may hate him with some of the theories that he's come up with. I disproved a lot of them during my own studies, and he is not exactly pleased about that. We meet for tea every night in one of our quarters, getting to know each other once more and planning out exactly how to find out what happened to Lucius._

_You see...Severus never taught Lucius how to use Sectumsempra. At my request, they both ceased most of their dark arts studies and, though I am sure they took at least part of those same studies back up when I was "lost," they have never let me down before. Sectumsempra is an unmistakably dark spell...one which Severus taught to only one person before my arrival. That person is now in the graveyard, however I do not doubt that the wench taught it to someone before her death._

_One thing I do know, however, is that Lucius swore to me that he would not use that spell. I may believe a lot of things about Lucius, but he was my brother. He would not betray me. God, I sound so Obi-Wan Kenobi-ish. "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!"_

_Does that, then, mean that Lucius will be screaming "I hate you!" to me?_

_I know not...and yet I cannot bring myself to believe that he would. I knew when I asked Severus to demand Lucius' help in retrieving Sirius and the five students that I was putting Lucius in a position where his loyalty could- possibly- be questioned. I assumed, however, that capturing all of the deatheaters there would remove that possibility...especially since Lucius disapparated the moment that he sensed the Aurors. Could Rodolphus Lestrange have been there as well? Somewhere within the small hut that held the students and Sirius trapped? I do not know for sure, but to think that Lucius betrayed me...my closest and oldest friend?_

_That Remus and Sirius voted me out as an Honorary Marauder, I understand. That Severus screamed at me- likely more angry at himself for not noticing the similarities between "Helen" and Maya- can also be very easily understand. But Lucius...Lucius was pleased beyond words to see me. Lucius was the person that I considered my soul mate. Until he looks me in the eyes and tells me that he has betrayed me, I will not believe it._

_And that, likely, will be my downfall._

_**Maya Gurgeon**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya walked down to the Great Hall with Severus easily. Poppy Pomfrey- the only Mediwitch tolerated by the young auror/teacher/minister- had removed her stitches several days before, and she was well on her way to healing. The wounds had knit themselves well...the only thing left were bright pink, shining lines that marked the areas that she had needed stitches. Her movements were much more fluid...the last remaining stiffness fading with each passing minute...and she was feeling less and less pain with her movements. So, as she and Severus moved off of the last step and came face-to-face with Narcissa Malfoy and Maya vaulted the banister, ducking into cover and pointing her wand at the other witch, she felt no pain save that which came from the impact of her landing.

"Narcissa." Severus said, unfazed. "What a...pleasant...surprise." He put the emphasis of the sentence on _pleasant_ rather than _surprise_, letting the witch before him know that she'd best give him a damned good reason for her presence or he wouldn't stop the Auror standing behind the stairwell from hexing her six ways from Sunday.

"Severus...Maya..." Narcissa addressed the witch crouching just out of her line of sight...or rather, the wand pointing steadily at her in said-witch's hand. "I wasn't going to come to you...but I need your help."

"Another trick or trap, Malfoy?" Maya stood, her wand held steady.

"What? I don't understand." Narcissa said, uncertainly.

"Lucius attacked Maya in her mansion two weeks ago." Severus said, his voice cold. "He and Rodolphus Lestrange ambushed her."

"What? No!" Narcissa yelped. "Lucius? Surely not!"

"Would you like to see my pensieve, Narcissa? Come...let us take a walk." Without waiting for an answer, Maya swooped around the end of the banister and started up the stairs, trusting Severus to watch her back. Indeed, his wand was also out, and he motioned to Narcissa, who walked ahead of him. She was frightened by the cold welcome given to her by the two powerful teachers...and she feared that her husband had done something incredibly stupid. A feeling which deepened as she watched the memories collected in Maya Gurgeon's pensieve.

"Lucius did this?" Narcissa frowned at Maya, trying to work through her confusion.

"It certainly looks like it." Maya stated, her face impassive as she stood leaning on her desk. Narcissa frowned, trying to work out the cryptic remark through the haze of despair surrounding her brain. Severus was standing idly beside Maya, watching Narcissa as she struggled to come to terms with what she had seen. "Would you like to see the scars? After all...an auror's entire history can be written in their scars." It was an old saying that she and Alastor Moody had. It was one of the statements that she'd made when she'd accepted her position as Minister...and it was incredibly ironic. Most of the newer generations of Aurors prided themselves on not having any scars.

To emphasize her point, Maya shrugged out of her robes and lifted up her tank top to reveal the long, jagged scar stretching from the very bottom of the left side of her rib cage down and across to her right hip. There was a second line from the first blow...the one that had merely caught her as she'd dove away...a shorter slice that crossed the longer line, forming an almost-X. Narcissa looked at it, hesitantly reaching out towards the other witch's slender stomach. When Maya didn't move, Narcissa touched the scar gently, tracing it for a moment before stitting down in one of the two guest chairs. "It fits." She said blandly.

"What does, Narcissa?" Severus asked.

"Lucius has been acting...off...ever since the day after Maya killed Bellatrix. He would do things that normally Lucius would never dream of doing...almost as if he were...someone else." Narcissa said, slowly.

"Like what?"

"He's sleeping in the other bedroom...being rude to me at meals...he's even taken to drinking only from a flask that he carries with him." Maya and Severus both froze at the words, looking at each other.

"Surely not." Severus spoke first.

"It fits, Severus..." She said.

"What fits?" Narcissa asked, confused.

"Voldemort isn't that stupid!"

"No, but demented, psychopathic deatheater who just lost his wife and was in Azkaban that year might be." She had him there.

"Stupid enough for what?" Narcissa demanded. She was, of course, ignored.

"If you can prove it, I'll work with you." Severus said.

"I'll find out a way to prove it." Severus didn't doubt the witch for a moment.

"If your theory is true, then it means that Lucius is no longer of any use to the Dark Lord...he'll have to go into hiding."

"That's easy...we can just send him and Narcissa to the..." Maya stopped, an idea coming to her mind and lighting up her features. "Hidden Manor...Severus, that's it! That's how we can prove that it's not Lucius!"

"What are you talking about?" He snapped, in no mood for her mind games. Maya could be every bit as cryptic as Albus-fucking-Dumbledore sometimes.

"Of course!" Narcissa said, catching on. "If it's an imposter, then he won't be able to see the Hidden Manor!"

"You'll have to lure him there..." Maya warned.

"It could be done...easily!" Narcissa assured.

"Great! One of us could search the Malfoy Manor while the other laid the trap! If he's an imposter, then the real Lucius has to be somewhere nearby!"

"With the way he's acting, he wouldn't think it incredibly odd if I were to suggest a romantic get away anyways..." Narcissa said, warming to the idea.

"HOLD IT! Will someone please explain to me what the hell idea you two have come up with?" Severus snarled.

"Severus, don't be vulgar." Maya said, firmly. "And keep up, would you? Think about it...only five people alive know where the Hidden Manor is. I know, of course, because I am the Secret Keeper. Sirius knows, because he went to tell Lucius of my disappearance. Which means that Narcissa and Draco also know, since they were the ones in hiding. That leaves..."

"Lucius." Severus said. "Of course! If Lucius is an imposter, it will immediately become obvious!"

Maya nodded. "Narcissa can spring a visit to the Hidden Manor to get away for the day on him. You can take Draco and search Malfoy Manor for the real Lucius. I will, of course, have to be the one lying in wait...nobody else knows where the Hidden Manor is...and if he doesn't know that it's there...well..." That same dark, deadly pleasure from before flitted across her eyes and made Severus shiver.

"One thing..." He said. "Maya...you must swear to me that, even if he is Lucius, you will not hesitate to kill him." She stared at him, striken.

"Lucius! Oh, Severus, I couldn't! You know I couldn't! He's my closest friend!"

"If he is Lucius, then he has betrayed you Maya, and is your friend no longer." She stared at him hard for several moments before giving a sharp nod.

"NO!" Narcissa said. "Severus, Maya, please!" The brunette witch turned to face her and Narcissa took a step back before the emptiness in the auror's eyes. Something akin to sorrow surfaced for a split second before it was gone and the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor walked out of the room.

"Narcissa, you must think about this." Severus said, firmly. The witch glared at him. "Lucius would kill himself- quite **_literally_**- if he knew that Maya had let someone kill her simply because they were wearing his face. You know this. And then where would we be?"

"I know..." Narcissa admitted with great reluctance. She sighed softly. "Tell Maya to be at the Hidden Manor by eight on Saturday morning."

"I will. I'll take Draco and Potter with me when I go to Malfoy Manor to search at about nine." Severus smirked at her look of surprise. "Since they found out about their godmother, the two boys have been inseparable. Joined at the hip, really." He said, wryly.

"Such is the power of Maya's mere presence." Narcissa said, smiling faintly.

"Indeed." Severus said quietly as he escorted the Blonde slytherin out.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya sat calmly in a tree overlooking a clearing within which sat a lovely mansion. Anyone who did not know of its existence- which only five people, including she herself did- would see only more woods. Maya had spent a good three days of constant spellwork charming the clearing into nonexistence for any who she had not expressly told of the Hidden Manor's existence. She had been there for thirty minutes already, which meant that Narcissa and Lucius- if he was, indeed, Lucius- would be along at any minute. Her heart told her that he couldn't be Lucius. There was no way...she and Lucius had shared too many secrets...had spent too much time simply learning to know each other's every thought...every feeling...every **_mood_** for the man who attacked her to have been Lucius.

Even as the thought came to mind, she spotted two dark-robed figures coming towards her. It had worked. Narcissa had gotten him out of the house. Somehow, it had never occured to Maya to be jealous of the relationship that Narcissa and Lucius had. She had, after all, had an identical relationship with Sirius. Now, however, she no longer had her Siri and the thought of Narcissa and Lucius' love for each other tore her apart inside. It wasn't that she was jealous of Narcissa 'owning' Lucius...more that they had the type of loving, unconditional relationship that Maya had once had with Sirius...that she had given up because of Dumbledore's silly rules. The type of relationship that she craved with every corner of her being.

The two former-Slytherins passed beneath her without ever looking up, making her smirk silently. Narcissa had obviously done her part very well. Glancing towards the mansion one last time, Hermione easily dropped from her perch into the deep, soft snow. She landed without a sound, crouching down just slightly in her white robes and cloak. When neither of the Slytherins turned around, she slipped her wand out of its holder and walked easily up behind them, pointing the wand steadily at Lucius' back. The ambush had been set perfectly.

"Ah...here we are." Maya heard Narcissa sigh with relief and she grinned. She has set the anti-apparition wards around the Hidden Manor out by about a mile and a half to further discourage intruders. Needless to say, it worked. Few people enjoyed making the trek, even in the summer when the weather was fair...for the brilliant brunette had created the only path in or out of the mansion along every single type of discouraging terrain that she had been able to find at the time. In the summer, it was passable...though still fairly miserable. In the winter, many parts of the path were suicide. If one took a wrong step to either side, one could plunge to one's death. In short...it had been a perfect hideaway for the Malfoys.

"Where?" Lucius snarled. "I don't see anything, Narcissa!" Maya allowed a dark, feral smile to come to her face. Neither of them had noticed her as of yet.

"The Hidden Manor, of course!" Narcissa said, as if he should have known. She looked at him as if expecting him to realize it. Somehow, Maya got the feeling that Narcissa would rather this be her true husband...that she wanted to prove the former Gryffindor wrong. Shaking it off, she kept her wand levelled at the imposter's blonde back...unwavering.

"Oh! Of course...I...I must have...forgotten." The fake-Lucius tried to recover.

"Oh, I think not." The subzero temperature of the voice that spoke from behind them made the imposter spin around, his hand going into his robes for his wand. "Expelliarmus!" Only to stumble backwards as the wand flew out of his grip. Levelling a glare at the woman who was standing easily behind him, he fought back a shudder as he took note of the ice in her gaze.

"Gurgeon!" He hissed.

"Accio, Wand!" She barely flicked her wand in the direction of the one hidden in the snow, catching it easily as it flew to her. "You, sir, are under arrest." A simple flick of her eyes towards Narcissa was all it took to get the other witch to slowly work her way around the clearing to the brunette's side. Maya took her eyes off of the wizard in the middle of the clearing for all of a half a second and he moved quickly. She spun, the spell bounding from her lips even as he yanked his wand free and pointed it.

"Petrificus Totalus!" "Sectumsempra!" The words were shouted almost in unison. As soon as her own spell was off, Maya dove to her right, feeling his spell strike her arm in a glancing blow and rip open her white robes. He was too slow, however, and fell to the ground, petrified. As the blood flow on her arm slowed to a trickle which dripped from her fingertips, Maya turned and looked towards Narcissa.

"Cissa, go back to Malfoy Manor and help Severus, Draco, and Harry search. I'll take this dipshit in." The brunette said. Narcissa nodded and Maya smiled, tossing her the ebony colored wand attached to a silver snake canehead. "It's Lucius' real wand...so I wouldn't break it if I were you." Maya warned. The former slytherin nodded and walked back towards the edge of the anti-apparition wards. The brunette behind her turned around and pointed her wand towards the petrified imposter. "Mobilicorpus."

Narcissa looked back one last time...just before she passed out of sight. It was unnerving to see the witch that had always symbolized invulnerability and invincibility in Narcissa's mind standing silently in a pool of her own blood. Knowing that Maya wasn't invincible after all...it shocked Narcissa to the core with a sort of foreboding unfortune. She glanced down at the wand in her hand, and then back towards the witch in the distance. The pool of blood was still there. The auror and her captive, however, weren't.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya sat stoically as the same mediwizard from before- she'd found out that his name was Tirelius...Nathan Tirelius- worked to stitch up her left arm. She had shoved the captured deatheaters into the custody of Nymphadora Tonks the moment that she'd arrived...ignoring the other woman's glare...and had moved to floo Albus and assure him that she was safe and that her- and Severus'- hunch was correct. Alastor was leading the interrogation, as he was able to relate to the experience that the true Lucius Malfoy was having. Maya had instated him the head of her personal guard immediately upon being sworn into her post. Under a very concentrated, very potent dose of veritaserum, Marius Flint was confessing everything. It seemed that Maya and the aurors had missed one deatheater at the gathering...Barthus McNair had been hiding within the shack itself and had seen Lucius apparate away before the aurors had even come close to attacking.

When he'd reported this to Rodolphus Lestrange, Lestrange had immediately gone to Lucius' Manor and questioned him intently. It seemed that Marius had held Lucius under the imperio during the first attack on Maya's mansion. He and Barthus had drawn lots to see who got to masquerade as Lucius. Barthus had won, but when he had stayed behind and allowed himself to get captured, the honor had fallen to Marius. Once they were safely away from the first attack, Marius and Rodolphus had knocked Lucius unconscious and stashed him away. Marius had consumed the polyjuice potion and- after Rodolphus had placed him under the Transmorphus Curse- apparated back to the mansion for the second ambush.

During the interrogation, Severus had poked his head into the room and told Albus- who was overseeing the interrogation as the Wizengamot's representative- in a rather loud voice that they had found Lucius. He was very emancipated from a month's worth of having no food save for that which the house elves could sneak him, and he was injured from the treatment he'd recieved at the hands of both Rodolphus Lestrange and Marius Flint but otherwise whole. Since that announcement, Maya had been staring silently down at the proceedings, her face pale and her mouth closed.

For his part, Tirelius was content to have his patient silent. She had refused- once again- to go to St. Mungo's and take a healing potion...but other than that, she had been stoic and silent during the entire process. It was a welcome change, truthfully. Once he'd finished stitching the wound, he began to get his supplies back together slowly.

"Do you have a family, Nathan?" The Minister of Magic asked, quite suddenly. Her voice was low, and they were perched on a deep windowsill a good twenty feet above the proceedings. She had retreated up there the moment that she had dumped Marius none-too-gently into Alastor's 'tender loving care,' and she had refused to come down for anything. Nathan had taken one look at her, glaring down at him as if daring him to try to coax her from her perch, and had gone straight to Arthur Weasley for a flying carpet, which he'd flown up to the window.

"Yes, Minister, I do." He said, wondering where this was going. "A wife and a little girl who will be turning three this April."

"I see." She was quiet then. Just when he didn't think she was going to speak again and had reached for the flying carpet, her voice startled him. "When you get down from here, I want you to go to home to them and hold them close."

"Minister, with all due respect, I couldn't possibly..."

"Please, Nathan. Do this for me. Take the rest of your shift off and go home. Play a game with your daughter, hold your wife close. Be happy." There was something else to her demand, the mediwizard sensed, and so he nodded his aquiescence before flying back down to the floor, where he was immediatly accosted by Albus and Alastor both...wanting to know her state.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there when Severus flew up to her on the same flying carpet that Tirelius had used, slipping to sit beside her. He watched her face as she continued to stare silently into nothingness, seeing that she gave away nothing. "I am glad that I have been able to give someone happiness, at least." He was almost startled to hear her speak. She'd been so still when he'd arrived and sat beside her that he wasn't entirely sure that she had even noticed his presence.

"You give many people happiness, Maya." Severus said quietly. She chose not to acknowledge the comment, so after a long span of time, he turned the tide of the conversation. "May I see it?"

She shifted, pulling open the bloodstained white sleeve to reveal the long line of stitches stretching from the top of her shoulder...about a half a centimeter away from the newly formed scar of the last attack...down at an angle- wrapping around her arm steadily- to stop a span of about two and a half centimeters away from the soft joint flesh of her inner elbow. "Why would you not let anyone give you a healing potion? You know that...even if you did not wish to go to St. Mungos...Poppy or I could do it. You would be scarless...able to forget all about the injury." He said.

"I don't want to forget." She stated, quietly.

"Why not?" He asked.

For a long moment, he didn't think she would answer. When she did, however, her voice was strangely soft. "I have exacted my revenge on Bellatrix Lestrange for what she did both to Sirius and to Frank and Alice. I have exacted revenge on Pudge Pettigrew for betraying Lily and James. However...I, too, owe my pound of flesh for what happened. This..." She motioned quietly. "This is just the beginning of what I owe James and Lily for not doing more to help them."

Severus was shocked into silence. How could he refute her claim when he himself had said the exact same thing many times less than a month before? After a few moments, he reached for the brunette and pulled her slowly into his chest, holding her close and lowering his head to hers. She stiffened at first, but soon relaxed against him...silently taking his comfort.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"Minister Weasley and I have time for two more questions." Maya said. She and Percy were at a press conference to assure the wizarding world that Maya was still in one piece after having 'fought a magnificent and astoundingly brave duel against the malicious Marius Flint, who wounded her gravely in the process.'

"Minister Gurgeon...it is said that you were gravely wounded in your duel. Do you fear that it may no longer be safe for you at Hogwarts, knowing that the children of so many known Deatheaters attend?" Rita Skeeter. A bee in Maya's bonnet since her Fourth Year.

"Skeeter, isn't it?" She pretended that her memory was fuzzy. It always pleased the masses when you remembered their names. "Well, Rita, I am confident that I am as safe as possible within the walls of Hogwarts. The head of my personal guard, Alastor Moody, is always near should I need his help." This was stretching it. Alastor couldn't stand seeing the difference in who she was compared to who she once had been, so he preferred to spend as much time away from her as possible. He was always at Hogwarts...but he was rarely near her.

"Aren't you afraid that Hogwarts will not be enough?" Another reporter blurted. Maya glanced at Percy, who nodded to give her the floor.

"In war, Ms. Skeeter, no place is completely safe. There are risks to my life wherever I go. I could be killed right now by a freak lightning storm or a hippogriff attack." She knew that she had to give the idea that she was human...and thus killable...but also an auror, their minister- and thus invincible...invulnerable. "However, I am confident in my own duelling skills, and I believe that I am as safe as I have a right to expect to be at Hogwarts." She glanced at Percy, signalling him to end the conference.

"Time is up! Unfortunately, Minister Gurgeon and I have to be inside for a meeting with the French Ambassador in..." He pretended to glance at his watch. "Five minutes ago. If you'll excuse us..." He motioned and Maya smiled, turning to walk side-by-side with her Co-Minister as they moved towards the french double-doors behind the podeum.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Before the words had fully been shouted, Maya had shoved Percy to the ground, vaulting aside into a tight roll that- despite her caution- tore open the stitches down her left arm. Her wand was out as she finished the roll, coming up in a crouch and staring warily out across the crowd. A witch was being restrained by a group of reporters, and Maya could see that it would do little good to remain out in the open. Thus, when Alastor moved to her and used his own body to shield the smaller witch, she made no protest...allowing herself to be hurried into the open doors of the Ministry.

Maya could feel her arm beginning to ache acutely as blood began to seep down her hand to drip off of her fingertips, pooling on the floor as she stood with her wand out, watching the doorway. "Minister, shouldn't you go to St. Mungos?" One of the aurors asked. Dark brown eyes shot daggers at him and he backed down immediately, leaving the woman to her peace as Alastor sent someone to summon Tirelius. A group of aurors dragged a struggling young woman who seemed somehow...familiar...to Maya through the french doors, stopping and holding her for the inspection of the Co-Ministers. Despite her obvious animosity for the young Minister, Tonks stepped immediately to Maya's left side while Alastor stood at her right.

Percy was staring at Maya with a newfound respect, knowing in his heart that she had just saved his life when the split second hesitation could have easily cost the witch her own. He remained silent...a foot or so behind her and to one side...as Maya reached out with her good arm and gripped the prisoner's chin firmly in her hand, forcing the head at an angle and studying the profile view before turning her head in the opposite direction. When she released the girl- for indeed, the witch was little more than such- the younger witch spat straight into Maya's face. The entire room seemed to hold its breath for a long moment before Maya reached forward once more, gripping a handfull of the impertinent youth's robes and using them to wipe the spit off of her face.

This done, she forced her stiff, bleeding left arm into movement, reaching upwards with it as the aurors and officials watched with bated breath. Contrary to their fear of violence, however, Hermione simply wiped her bloody fingers across the young woman's brow, marking her with Maya's own blood. "Bitch!" The young witch before her rasped. This time, Maya spread bloody fingers and slapped her, leaving a handprint of blood on the fair cheek.

"You're a Lestrange." It wasn't a question.

"Bellatrix was my mother." The answer came anyways.

"Good. Then you can take her place in the depths of Azkaban." Maya took a step back, nodding to the aurors as Nathan Tirelius walked up.

"What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?" He snapped. She glanced at him sheepishly and lifted her billowing sleeve to reveal her bloody left arm. "Christ, Minister! You'll be the death of me!"

"That's what we've all told her." Alastor growled, looking with something akin to amusement at Maya. "She never listens. It's a lost cause."

Maya was about to reply with a comment designed to let both Alastor and Nathan know exactly where they could stick their wands and any other smart comments that they were going go make on the subject when a voice coming from down the hall cut her off. "**_WHERE IS SHE!_**" Before Tirelius could react, Maya had shoved him behind an Auror and turned, drawing her wand and pointing it down the hallway under Alastor's extended wand arm...as the taller man had stepped in front of her to protect her. A moment later, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin bounded around the corner.

Nymphadora Tonks immediately lowered her wand, stepping back among the ranks of the Aurors...not willing to attack Remus but not quite willing to remove all of the protection on Maya and Percy quite yet. With Maya effectively hidden behind Alastor...having also lowered her wand and slid it back into her holster...Remus and Sirius looked around at the crowd gathered. Sirius was unnaturally pale, and when he didn't see the female half of the two Ministers, he let out a barely audible sound of despair. "Sorry about this, Remus...Sirius." Kingsley said as he motioned. Two young aurors hurried forward to search both men, confiscating their wands. "You'll get them back the moment one of the ministers gives the word."

"Of course, Kingsley. We understand." Remus assured, shooting Sirius a dark, warning look. The animagus frowned, but said nothing.

"State your business!" Alastor snapped.

"Oh for Pete's Sake, Alastor!" Maya growled. "At the very least, let's take this somewhere out of the view of the god damned sharks and their god damned cameras!"

"Maya's right...we're too exposed here." Percy said. "If there was to be another attack, the perpetrator could cut us down one by one before we ever got a spell off."

"Stop talking like you know how to duel, Percy." Maya's good mood was wearing off. She shoved past Alastor. "Come on, Nathan. You can redo your work in my office." She walked off in a billow of robes...the mediwizard in his white healer's robes trying not to run in a very undignified manner to keep up.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya sat silently behind her desk, her robes carefully shifted so that her left shoulder and- by extent- her left arm were free of the cloth, though her breasts were still hidden easily. The blood-soaked left sleeve of her robes hung loosely...nearly touching the floor...and Nathan sat on her left, carefully stitching her up once more. Alastor stood at the Minister's right shoulder, his hand within easy reach of his wand. Percy had shuffled off to the meeting with the French Ambassador, and Tonks was standing as Alastor's backup in the darkest corner of the office. With her left forearm bare, Maya's spare wand was clearly visible in the holder that fit down her forearm easily...and she let its presence unnerve the two men standing on the other side of her desk, watching her nervously as she endured the pain of what the mediwizard was forced to do...first taking out the old stitches, trimming up the jagged, torn flesh, and then sewing the wound closed once more.

"State your business!" Maya barked in a surprisingly good imitation of Alastor. She'd tired of their scrutiny, it seemed.

"We...we heard that there was an attack on you." Remus stuttered.

"An attack, hm? Wondrously informed, as always, Mr. Lupin." The woman sitting behind the desk drawled.

"We came...to make sure that you hadn't been injured." It was the wrong thing to say...which, of course, anyone in the room could have told him. To her credit, Maya waited until Nathan was finished with the stitch that he was currently working on before smacking his hands away and standing.

"To make sure that I haven't been injured? Now...do you mean literally? Because you can take your bloody fucking **_pick_** of injuries there, Lupin!" Her voice was deadly, and neither Alastor nor Tonks was going to do a thing to stop her tirade. Had she been going to hurt Remus, she would have done so without ever moving from her chair. She was simply throwing back in his face his own actions and making him eat them. "Would you like to see? I have a lovely scar on my stomach. Or...what about the one running down my left shoulder? Or maybe you mean the ones crossing my back? Oh I know...you must mean the one across my chest." She sneered, letting the precariously draped robe drop to the ground...leaving the very unmodest Minister of Magic in nothing save for her bra, panties, holsters, and the wands inside of the holsters. Her body was, indeed, now mangled and covered with scars.

Alastor, who'd seen her when she'd stumbled in from Marius Flint's attack at her mansion...bloody and barely able to hold herself on her feet...kept his eyes not on the woman demanding the attention, but the men beyond her. His backup in her corner, however, had no such knowledge. Tonks let out a soft gasp of horror. Remus and Sirius paled considerably, seeing the spells crossing her abdomen that had nearly gutted her...as well as the one running almost perfectly over her collarbone, just below her throat. When she spun to show them her mangled back, they turned green and had to sit down, lest they wanted to fall. The once unbroken, perfect skin of Maya's sleek, strong back was riddled with scars. Nathan had done a handsome job of patching her up...but the evidence was still clear. When Maya had turned away, unable to watch as Lucius...her Lucius...attacked her, the imposter had literally torn her back to ribbons. Not a single millimeter of skin had been left untouched from the base of her neck until the slight swell of her butt...it had all been ripped apart.

"Or perhaps." She was merciless, spinning back to stare at the two men...who looked like they had just seen their worst nightmares brought to life. "Perhaps you mean the injuries on my soul! In that case, look to your own god damned actions and get the HELL out of my office!" Shooting them one last glare, the witch picked up her loose, fashionable robes and walked back to her chair, draping them back over herself and sitting down to allow Nathan to continue stitching.

"I...I didn't see that much damage when...when Albus and I..." Sirius began to stutter.

Alastor answered for Maya. "She'd been here for a good two hours before you and Albus came. She wouldn't let me summon Albus until Doctor Tirelius over here had patched her- and her robes- up enough not to worry the Headmaster. He's not as young as he likes to think he is."

"Why didn't she tell us? We were her friends!" Remus said.

"Were." Alastor grunted. "Fat lot of good friends you were, leaving her alone the moment she showed her face."

"She..." Sirius began.

"Did as she was **_ordered_** to do, under the impression that the people that she **_loved_** would understand!" Alastor snapped. "Maya Gurgeon- whether anybody will truly admit to it or not since she disappeared before the end- was a **_major_** player in the last war, Black!" He had moved between Maya and the men on the other side of the desk. The Minister/Professor/Auror had rested her forehead against his back. She'd told him once that he was the closest thing that she had to a father, and he was going to act the part. "Should Voldemort have gotten wind of her return, he'd stop at nothing to drag her down!"

"How do you figure?" Remus asked. Alastor looked at him like he'd gone daft.

"Oh I don't know." The feminine voice came from the corner, laden with sarcasm enough to make Severus and Maya **_combined_** proud. "Maybe the fact that since she's dropped her cover...to save _Sirius_, no less...she's been ambushed twice in her own home, attacked at a press conference, and had to set a trap for a deatheater masquerading as her best friend?" Remus stared at Tonks for a long moment before turning to look at Alastor- as if he could actually see through the formidable auror to the witch sitting behind him- as if a new light had just come over the situation.

Before he could say anything, however, the door burst off its hinges. The witch behind Alastor spun out behind him, crouching behind the desk, leaning around the edge with her wand pointed at the door. With few choice words, she lowered it and stood.

"Bags on it all, Severus! What if I had cursed you!" She growled. He took in her obvious bad mood and grinned at her as she slipped her wand back into its holster.

"Good to know you're not dead." He told her. She moved back to her seat and Alastor took up his post at her right shoulder once more, standing slightly behind her as Tirelius began work on the last few stitches.

"You owe me a new door." Was all she said...and this more a growl than anything else. The potion master turned and surveyed the damage almost casually as Albus Dumbledore walked through, stepping carefully over the splinters of the door, followed by Harry and Draco.

"I don't see anything wrong with it." Severus said.

"We'll see if you're still singing that same tune when I replace it with the one to your private quarters, Severus Snape!" Maya threatened. Remus and Sirius were slightly gratified to see the potion master pale slightly, turning to immediately begin repairing the door. A fleeting smirk crossed her lips before the woman turned to look at her two godsons. "Come now, boys...you can hug me, you know. I won't break." It was as if a dam broke, and they pelted towards her much like smaller children than the teens they were. Dropping to a kneel beside her chair, Draco hugged her first. Maya wrapped her good right arm around him and held him close, whispering softly in his ear.

Tirelius finished with her last stitch and tapped her shoulder to let her know. She immediately spun in her chair and reached for Harry, who joined Draco on the floor and hugged her tightly. With her arms around both boys, she leaned in and whispered gently. "Here now...why so happy to see me? I'm hardly a celebrity." She teased gently.

"We never got to see you after you left yesterday morning." Draco said, quietly.

"When we heard about the attack today..." Harry continued.

"We were afraid for you." Draco finished.

Maya studied their faces, staring at her with such intensity. She could see Lily and James looking at her from Harry's face...and Lucius peering at her through Draco's eyes. With a gentle sigh, she gathered them both close and held them for a moment more. "As you can see." She said sternly as she pulled back. "I am quite healthy and whole. There was no need to ask Professor Snape to blow in my door."

"Oh we didn't ask him to do that!" Draco said.

"He did that on his own." Harry assured her.

Maya's bark of laughter lit up the room like a candle in otherwise sheer darkness.


	6. Chapter 5: Angel Band

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.**

**A big thanks and a shout out goes to:**

**screwtheperfectlife – Yes...I wanted there to be one good moment for what will come in this chapter.**

**The Griffindor Drummer – You'll have to wait and see, won't you?**

**Idancer – I'm glad you enjoy this so much...and I know what you mean by the repeated chapters. That was my fault.**

**hpobessor – Well...you'll see if your prediction was right now, won't you?**

**ladyportista4 – Actually, it wasn't a short chapter. No shorter than the average for these chapters, which is 10 – 11 pages per chapter.**

**Warg – No. You can figure it out with everyone else.**

**Serlene – I'm glad you liked that. That was your "heartwarming" moment. There will be precious few of those from here on out.**

**Fantasy Loremaker – Um...I plead the fifth! You cannot incriminate me based off of anything I have or will say! -Slaps her hands over her mouth.- Read and find out who dies. I shall never tell!**

**_Okay...now, I Know I said I would update once a week but I'm going to post this before my first final because you probably won't get another update for a while. Anyway...in this chapter, you all get to see who dies. I warn you now...I was sobbing as I wrote this. You will think me cold, and you will likely not like me very much at the moment that you realize exactly whose life expires within this chapter...but it cannot be helped. I am not very pleased with myself, either, because it is so very sad. However, with death comes the realization that life is short...and there is a small bit of happiness in the end._**

Also, there are two songs in this chapter. One is Peter Rowan's song Casey's Last Ride...and the other is a well-known bluegrass song. If you've ever seen Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, you've heard this song...at least in part. The reason I don't give a specific artist in the singing of this song...which is titled Angel Band, after the name of the chapter...is because I sing this song. I've been singing bluegrass for about fourteen years now and this is one of the songs that I sing by myself and not with my dad or grandma. I will try to record it and get it posted somewhere to download, but I can't play the guitar (yet) so it'll be acapella.

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

**Chapter 5**

_Sometimes, I feel as if the Gods are out to get me. Yes, I believe in the Gods...for what good it does me. I am not some lawless, unthinking heathen. Nor am I insolent...nor arrogant...enough to believe that I make my own destiny. My "foray"- as Percy Weasley is fond of calling it- into the past proves that my destiny is one twisted piece of cloth. I sometimes wish that I could come face to face with the keeper of Destiny and give them a piece of my mind...and yes, perhaps a wand up his or her pompous, assuming ass. It seems that I cannot catch a break now that I have returned to the time period of my origin. I sometimes think that the dead are to be envied. Lily, James...you have no idea how easy it is, getting to sit back and simply watch things occur. That must be hard enough for you...but all you have to do when you feel despair is to imagine what it must be like to live this life._

_Lucius took a sudden, unexpected turn for the worst._

_He was well on his way to healing when his temperature suddenly spiked and a previously unnoticed infection became obvious. It was an infection that is so rare...so untreatable...that it could not have gotten into his system without help. Rodolphus Lestrange continues with every passing day to add more reasons for me to kill him. That Lucius is lying here...so sick...it kills me inside. I could have sidestepped all of this. All I had to do was kill two people before they had a chance to wreak their havoc on the world._

_The list of regrets is beginning to add up. Shall we write it out?_

_1. I did not kill Bellatrix Lestrange when she was still Bellatrix Black and thus unable to harm Frank and Alice Longbottom._

_2. I did nothing to stop the Potters from using Peter Pettigrew as their Secret Keeper...thus condemning them to death._

_3. I led Sirius on for nearly four years before my "disappearance," allowing him to think that I would marry him that August. Only a month after my disappearance._

_4. I decieved Remus, Sirius, Severus, Lucius, and Trevor when I returned to this time period, remaining in hiding until Bellatrix's actions forced my hand and made me seek her out to retrieve my godsons and Sirius from her clutches._

_5. I ran from Lucius' welcome...fearing that once he found that I was blocking our connection to protect him from my own anguish, he would hate me._

_6. I refused to kill Marius Flint when he was masquerading as Lucius...and thus did not kill Rodolphus_

_7. I- said to be one of the smartest witches ever to grace Hogwarts' halls- did not figure out sooner that Lucius wouldn't have betrayed me..._

_8. I must sit here and watch my soul mate die of an infection that...had our connection been open this entire time...would never have been able to take hold of him._

_He is so pale, lying there. His silver-blonde hair looks very, very dark held in comparison to his face. Lucius...oh my Lucius...what will I do without you? Is this what you felt, knowing that you had been unable to prevent my "death," sixteen years ago? Is this...this anguish...what tore you apart when Sirius gave you the news? Oh Lucius...my dearest, closest friend._

_...I do not think I can live through your death, Lucius...I don't have the strength that you do..._

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya sat silently beside the bed in St. Mungo's. She had staunchly refused to be moved...even going so far as to hex whomever approached her with the intent of removing her from the blonde wizard's side. A meager pile of books lay on the ground beside her...all that Albus, Severus, Narcissa, and Alastor combined had been able to find on the _Sin un Alma_ infection. The Minister of Magic was nearly as pale as the blonde lying prone on the bed, dark circles beneath her eyes becoming more pronounced with each sleepless night spent watching him try to fight the infection.

She could still remember Narcissa's accusing gaze when they had listened to the Mediwizards that Maya had sent for from the corners of the globe...Germany, Romania, Russia, Japan, Australia, America...even South America...explain the details of the _Sin un Alma_ infection.

_"Nobody has ever been known to survive it." The American Mediwizard explained slowly. "Nobody is entirely sure why this is...but the infection seems to hit the patient's lifeforce directly...not their actual body."_

_"Sin un Alma. It is Spanish for Without a Soul." Said the mediwitch from Spain. "Only a witch or wizard who has lost their soulmate to death or the actual magical closing of the link can contract this infection." At this, all eyes in the room had shot to Maya, whose own eyes had begun to widen, her face paling. "It attacks the part of the victim's soul that is missing and works its way inwards until there is nothing left."_

_"In short..." The Mediwitch from Argentina explained. "It will kill his soul first...and then it will kill his body."_

"Maya." The hoarse whisper came from beside her. Hermione had thrown open the link between their souls in one last desperate attempt to save him that afternoon. She perked up immediately at the sound of his voice. "Maya...it's time to let go."

"No...Lucius, no! You're going to be okay..." She whispered. "I promise...the link...it's there now...it's back!"

The look he gave her was so gentle...so warm and sympathetic...so..._forgiving_...that she knew. It wasn't going to be okay. **Lucius** wasn't going to be okay. "It's been working on me for months now, Maya." He whispered. "I caught the infection just before..." Here he paused, taking a breath to gather his strength. "Just before you...as Hermione Granger...broke the time turner. It's too late for me, Maya. Close the connection between us so that you cannot feel it when I die. Please."

Maya's tears began. She was aware of Narcissa standing to one side, watching silently...mourning. Draco was standing beside his mother, she knew. Maya knew, somehow, that she was the last person to truly know that Lucius was dying. "I..." She choked on a sob. Narcissa spoke softly to a pair of nurses standing nearby and they disappeared. "I can't, Lucius. I want to be connected with you...to help you with your pain as best as I can."

"Very well." He closed his tired silver eyes for a long, long moment. "We had some good times, didn't we Maya?"

"The best, Lucius." She whispered. Through the link, she could feel his soul being devoured. It tore at a part of her that she had long since walled up against her pain. She was aware, barely, of the crowd of her friends and family that was gathering slowly in the private ward that Lucius had been settled into.

"Do me a favor?"

"Anything..." She choked on her sobs, wanting with everything that she was to beg him not to leave her...not after all of this time. Narcissa and Draco stood across from Maya, subdued. They had had months to say goodbye. Maya had never known that she was saying goodbye with each passing day. She had never known that as she had flung herself into the floo and back into the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, she had lost her last few, precious, weeks with Lucius.

"Take custody of Draco...until he is of age? Cissa...she and I have talked about it and...and she's going to begin travelling abroad. You know...like she always wanted to do." Lucius opened his eyes and looked at her.

"Of course I will, Lucius." Hemione whispered, half laying on the bed with him, holding him tightly close to her...ignoring the slight protest from her injured left arm. "Oh...Lucius..."

"Play a song for me, Maya?" His voice sounded so weak...so lost. "One last song? Sing me back home...before I die." Sobbing in earnest now, she nodded and turned. Severus had brought along her acoustic guitar, and she took it from him, double-checking the tuning before sinking back into her seat beside the bed. Her sobs subsided the moment that she held the familiar instrument close...though her tears continued to flow incessantly.

"**Casey joins the hollow sound of silent people walking down**" She began to strum a chord with every first and third beat, singing softly.

"**The stairway to the subway in the shadows down below**

**Following their footsteps through the neon darkened corridors**

**Of silent desperation never speaking to a soul**" She began to play along with her music...the gentle sound of the guitar ringing through the ward.

"**The poisoned air he's breathing has the dirty smell of dying**

'**Cause it's never felt the sunshine and it's never felt the rain**

**But Casey minds the arrows and ignores the fatal echoes of**

**The clicking of the turnstile and the rattling of his chains**" Maya paused, playing a few beats before the song sped just faintly and she continued playing along with it.

"**Oh she said, Casey it's been so long since I've seen you**

**Here she said, Just a kiss to make a body smile**" Narcissa began sobbing softly.

"**See she said, I put on new stockings just to please you**

**Lord, she said, but Casey can you only stay a while**" Her words slowed once more and she took up the slow strums once again...her tears barely choking off her words.

"**Casey leaves the underground and stops inside the Golden Crown**

**For something wet to wipe away the chill that's on his bone**

**Seein his reflection in the lives of all the lonely men**

**Who reach for anything they can to keep from goin home**" She began to play once more, staring into space...her soul lost in the struggle between Lucius' soul and the infection raging within him.

"**Standing in the corner Casey drinks his pint of bitter**

**Never glancing in the mirror at the people passing by**

**And he stumbles as he's a'leavin and he wonders if the reason**

**Is the beer that's in his belly or the tear that's in his eye Iyiyiyi!**" She continued playing unhesitantly, the song coming straight from within her heart. Draco began to cry.

"**Oh she said, I suppose you seldom think about me**

**Now she said, now that you've a family of your own**

**Still, she said, it's so blessed good to feel your body**

**Lord, she said, Casey it's a shame to be alone**" She began to play an instrumental break, the guitar literally singing in her arms as she took as much of Lucius' pain as she could...protecting him.

"**Oh she said, Casey it's been so long since I've seen you**

**Here she said, Just a kiss to make a body smile**

**See she said, I put on new stockings just to please you**

**Lord, she said, Casey can you only stay a while**

**Oh she said, I suppose you seldom think about me**

**Now she said, now that you've a family of your own**

**Still, she said, it's so blessed good to feel your body**

**Lord, she said, Casey it's a shame to be alone**" She began to hum the tune of the chorus, barely able to keep her voice steady as the last of Lucius' soul was devoured and his lifeforce began to slowly disappear.

"Another." Rasped out Lucius...clinging to consciousness thanks to the link that Maya was forcefully maintaining. "Please Maya...Sing me the song that...that you always sing."

"Lucius..." Her voice broke.

"The one about angels, Maya. Sing me the one about Angels..."

Obediently, Maya picked up her guitar and shifted it. She moved over to sit on the bed as he fell unconscious, strumming a chord slowly before she began to sing.

"**My latest sun is sinking fast**

**My race is nearly run**

**My longest trials now are past**

**My triumph has begun**" Her voice almost broke at the last line. Behind her, Sirius' voice joined hers...rising up on the harmony during the chorus.

"**Oh come Angel Band**

**Come and Around me stand**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**" She began picking an instrumental break, feeling as though a part of herself was being torn away with each passing second. Only Sirius' hand on her shoulder kept her voice steady as she continued...and she had three more verses to get through.

"**I know I'm nearing the holy ranks**

**Of friends and kindred dear**

**I brush the dew of Jordan's banks**

**The crossing must be near.**" She leaned back into Sirius as he joined her once more on the chorus.

"**Oh come Angel Band**

**Come and Around me stand**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**" She picked another quick instrumental break, tears dripping steadily onto the top of the guitar.

"**Oh bear my longing heart to him**

**Who bled and died for me**

**Whose blood now cleanses from all sins**

**And gives me victory**" Behind her, she could hear Harry holding Draco, trying to soothe him...and she felt a deep regret that she wasn't able to be strong for them at that moment.

"**Oh come Angel Band**

**Come and Around me stand**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**" She began to pick the last instrumental break, staring down at Lucius as she felt his life begin to go. _Hold on..._ She thought. _Only one more verse now, Lucius my friend...please hold on._

"**I've almost reached my heavenly home**

**My spirit loudly sings**" Her voice broke and Sirius' arm wrapped around her shoulders, careful not to hinder her playing. His voice joined hers halfway through the verse this time to give her the strenth to finish the song.

"**The holy ones behold they come**" As if they had been waiting for that moment, the corner of the room shone with light...quite suddenly. Draco let out a soft cry.

"**I hear the noise of wings**" Maya's voice broke once more and only Sirius' arm around her kept her from stopping there...clinging to Lucius with all that she was. She knew, somehow, that the blonde lying on the bed wouldn't leave her until she'd finished the song.

Taking a deep breath, she finished it.

"**Oh come Angel Band**

**Come and Around me stand**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**Oh come Angel Band**

**Come and Around me stand**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**Oh bear me away on your snow white wings**

**To my immortal home**

**...To my immortal home...**" Maya strummed the last chord as she and Sirius sang the last note.

The bright light in the corner had dimmed...the angels leaving and taking Lucius home. The monitor on his heart began its insistent, high-pitched, steady squeal. Narcissa's wail broke the silence as the Mediwitches and Mediwizards moved forward to unhook Lucius from the monitors that had been set up all around his bed. Seemingly oblivious to their presence, the Minister of Magic bowed her head over her guitar in silence, no sounds escaping her mouth as grief overwhelmed her completely.

The others left her there as they trickled out. Severus stood silently in the hallway to wait, Trevor beside him. Tonks supported Narcissa, who was sobbing in earnest, and Harry stood near Draco, holding him silently. Sirius stood near the two boys to give them both his support, while Remus joined Tonks and Narcissa.

...Inside of the ward, a shrill, hearbroken scream sounded.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya watched, dry-eyed, as the caskett bearing her best friend was lowered into the ground. Narcissa was still sobbing, Trevor's wife was crying, even Severus and Trevor themselves had shed a few tears. Maya, on the other hand, had not cried since that day in St. Mungo's. Nobody knew for sure what had happened when the ward was abandonded...save for Lucius' quickly cooling body and the powerful, broken-hearted witch who had truly been able to call him her Soul Mate...and nobody was entirely certain that they **wanted** to know.

Maya stood in black mourning robes...her hair had been temporarily dyed black, and she had used black makeup for the occasion. A black veil had hidden her face earlier...though she had pulled it back to watch the caskett be placed into the grave. Narcissa stood at her left shoulder, Albus at her right. Sirius and Remus were standing with Harry to Albus' right, and Draco had chosen to stand with them, drawing what comfort he could from Harry's presence. Severus and Trevor stood behind Maya and Narcissa respectively, their hands on the witches' shoulders. Maya had been forced to give a speech at the actual service. She'd not said a word since she'd finished talking and stepped down from the podium in the funeral home.

Narcissa turned to press her face into the Minister's shoulder, sobbing. Maya let the blonde take what comfort she could...ignoring the ache in the stitches that would be removed the next day and lending her strength to her best friend's wife. Hogwarts' midterms had been cancelled and the students had been sent home for break a full week early to honor Lucius' memory, so Draco, Harry, and Maya wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts once the funeral was finished. They- along with Ron and Ginny Weasley- would be going to Maya's mansion, where they would stay for the duration of the holidays. Maya herself, Alastor, Sirius, and even Albus Dumbledore had been to the mansion already, erecting wards around it. The final step had, of course, been making Maya the secret keeper of the mansion. She told a scant few people- Nathan Tirelius, Alastor, Albus, Remus, Sirius, Severus, and Trevor- the address so that they could find her and the boys...and Sirius would be spending Christmas there...but she had yet to inform Draco and Harry.

Draco stood silently beside Harry, watching as his father was lowered into the cold, hard earth. The day was warm, but he could see that his godmother let out a shiver...it must have been hard, losing one's other half. Even his mother's loss couldn't quite compare. At least his mother had her family to return to. Voldemort had killed the Grangers earlier that year...and after four years, Maya had changed so much that she no longer needed them. She needed Sirius...and she needed Lucius, who was even now being lowered into the unforgiving ground of the graveyard.

He wanted so badly to comfort her, but when he felt Remus' hand on his shoulder, he turned instead to look up at the werewolf. "She won't appreciate knowing that you can see her pain, son." Remus said gently.

"She lets Severus and Mr. Zabini comfort her." Draco pointed out.

"Yes...and if you could see their flesh, you would see the rapidly healing scars from a good hundred hexes thrown their way before they could get close enough to hold her." Sirius said, softly.

"Maya feels as if she doesn't have a right to be comforted." Remus said softly. "I'm afraid that Severus, Sirius, and I were very foolish at the beginning of this year. We blamed her for everything that had happened...even when we knew that she couldn't have stopped destiny any more than she could have saved Lucius had she had much more warning than she did."

Draco nodded solemnly before looking at Harry. The younger boy gave him a comforting grin before looking at the grave solemnly. A spell from the gravediggers made the dirt begin steadily trickling into the hole. Maya and Narcissa both stepped forward, holding each other's hands, and tossed a pair of roses- one red, one black- into the grave. They then stood back and watched stoically. "Come on." Sirius said softly to the teens. They turned and followed Tonks, Remus, and Sirius as he walked to the edge of the graveyard to wait...where they were joined by Trevor and Severus.

After a few minutes, Maya and Narcissa finally turned and walked towards the group of mixed Slytherins and Gryffindors, their heads held high befitting their haughty, regal statuses. The two witches stopped about ten feet from the group and turned to face each other, hugging each other stiffly. Neither, it seemed, would be able to forgive Maya. She met Narcissa's red-rimmed eyes, however, and she did so without complaint...without breaking before the silent accusation there. "Take care of Draco, Maya. Remember your vow." Narcissa said, her voice hard.

"I will never forget, Narcissa." Maya's voice was equally hard...equally formal.

"He loved you." Narcissa said, suddenly...unable to handle the stark emptiness in the brunette's eyes. "He loved you more than anything else on this earth. He...he would be proud of who you are."

"Thank you, Narcissa." Maya whispered. She turned and walked to Harry and Draco, looking down at them. "Are you both ready?" When they nodded, she moved easily to one of the five identical cars that would be transporting herself and her godsons to their destination. The cars would cross paths multiple times on their trip, before Maya disapparated with both of the boys mid-trip to reappear at her mansion. She would then tell them the address to memorize. And voila.

The plan was carried off without a hitch, and before long, Maya, Harry, and Draco were sitting in the living room of her mansion sipping cocoa.

"Mistress Gurgeon?" Libby approached slowly. "That nasty, nasty Otty Elf Killeded himself last night."

"What have you done with the body?" Maya asked, softly.

"Libby has taken care of it, Mistress, Yes Libby has."

"Thank you, Libby." Maya said, looking out the window to spot Sirius standing on the corner with Ron and Ginny. "Draco, Harry." The boys, who were on their stomachs in the middle of the floor, looking at one of her old picture albums, looked up at her. "Remain inside. I'll be back shortly. Sirius, Ginny, and Ron have arrived." She stood and set her cocoa down on a coffee table, walking out to get the three on the street.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"Things are coming to a head." Severus said softly, leaning easily on a counter. "They suspect that I am a spy. Trevor sent Blaise here with me so that Blaise was protected...something's brewing, Maya."

Hermione was standing silently in the dining room on Christmas Day, talking with Sirius, Severus, and Remus. Tonks was in the living room with all of the teenagers- plus Blaise, who had arrived that morning with Severus- entertaining them with stories of war and love, all that gunk. Maya couldn't be bothered to pay much attention. "Something has _been_ brewing, Severus!" Remus said. "Maya has been injured more times in these past three months than she was in four **_years_** in the past!"

"She's been allowing half of it to happen, Remus! Think about it! She sat there and _let_ Marius Flint hex her because she thought he was Lucius! She _let_ him hex her again because she was trapping him!"

"What about the attack in the ministry?" The werewolf pointed out.

"Ivy Lestrange thought that she could pay Maya back for the death of her mother. That was all." Severus said. Before any further arguing could be done, however, Maya had her wand out and was running for the back door. The men glanced out the window and let out yelps, barrelling towards the front door and out into the street. Percy Weasley was standing on the corner with Rodolphus Lestrange's arm firmly around his shoulders, wand pointing at the redhead's temple.

"Let him go, Lestrange!" Remus shouted as he hit the sidewalk. Severus remained inside, forced to watch to keep his cover in tact. The teens all gathered around him, staring out in horror.

"Lupin...How nice of you to join us!" Rodolphus sneered. "Ah...and Black as well. Let's see if I can finish the job my wife started, shall we?" As he moved his wand, a spell on his lips, a pair of inky black talons closed painfully over his extended arm, digging deep as they sank in. The solid black Griffen let out an odd screech as it pulled out of its dive, yanking Rodolphus behind it and into the air by his arm. He let out a roar of pain as the talons dug more deeply into his flesh, dropping his wand and- in his surprise- releasing Percy...who slumped to the ground, unconscious. Rodolphus' shrieks of pain could be heard from hundreds of yards in the air as the strange eagle/lion-like creature carried him away.

Severus was already reaching for the piece of paper on which Maya had written the address of her mansion, handing it out to Sirius who hurried to join Remus beside Percy. "Ennervate!" Remus muttered, and Percy woke with a jolt. Immediately, he was engulfed in waves of excrutiating pain, barely able to fathom the scrap of paper held before his blurred gaze. The charm on it implanted it in his memory, however, and moments later, he could see the house. As he passed out, he was aware of Remus and Sirius hurriedly carrying him towards the open door.

Maya felt the wind in her sleek, powerful black wings and she would have smirked had she been able to in her present form. Rodolphus had ceased screaming below her after the third time she'd flung him into the air and sunk her hollow talons into his back, allowing her venom to flow into his bloodstream. By now, there was enough inside of him to kill a dragon. It was a slow, painful way to die...as only a griffen knew how to make the anti-venom...and she had made sure that his had been all the more painful. She was nearing her destination now, her tail slowly whipping around her as she paused and checked her speed, spotting the dementors hovering about the perimeter.

So...Voldemort had gotten smarter. No matter. She flew at one dementor in particular, letting herself gain speed. At the last moment, she changed directions and shot straight into the air, releasing the body held in her talons so that it barrelled into the dementor, knocking the creature clear out of the air. The other dementors approached her and she let out a mocking laugh-screech as she used the air currents to smoothly spin around and jet back the way she'd come...still flying at her top speed without hesitation.

Her message had been delivered.

Voldemort had been warned.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"I thought I had enough on my hands with **_one_** Minister always being injured!" Tirelius groused as he finished his work on Percy and left the guest room at the mansion, closing the door behind him and turning to Remus and Ron. "He'll be fine...but when he wakes up, he'll have a bit of a headache. Don't worry, Mr. Weasley, your brother will be fine."

"Thank you, Doctor." Ron said, slipping past into the room and calling Pigwidgeon to him to send an owl to his mother, assuring her of Percy's safety.

"Now..." Nathan looked at Remus. "I don't suppose that Minister Gurgeon will be in one piece when she gets back?"

"You never know, Doctor." Sirius grinned. "She's actually pretty good at flying."

"Flying? Oh dear..." Nathan muttered. "If you gentlemen will excuse me...I think I'm going to need some more supplies." He hurried for the floo powder as Sirius and Severus broke out laughing.

"And here I was, assuming that you lot had some faith in me." A wry voice came from the doorway. The men turned to see Maya leaning casually against the doorframe with Ginny standing beside her grinning and Harry and Draco- for they were at least seven inches taller than their godmother- standing behind her snickering at the look on Tirelius' face. "Nathan...how is Percy?" She moved forward.

"As I told young Mr. Weasley...he'll be fine. There was no lasting damage...but considering, well, _recent_ events concerning those close to you, Minister, I would tie him up for an hour without allowing him to drink anything." Nathan said.

"Of course. We will be monitoring him carefully." Maya nodded. "Thank you, Nathan."

"You are quite welcome, Minister." He said, glancing at his watch. "I tell you what...I have some time. Why don't I check your stitches now and remove them?"

"That would be most welcome." the Minister said, smiling and nodding her head. "Would you like some tea, Nathan?"

"Tea would be delightful, Minister." He said, smiling in return. "It has been a busy day."

"Is the emergency ward filled, then?" She asked. "Libby!" The elf appeared with a pop. "Would you please set places for tea in the living room?" The elf bowed and disappeared.

"Unfortunately, yes...there was an attack on an orphanage last night." The mediwizard sat on the sofa beside Maya and rolled up her sleeve, beginning to examine her left arm before working to take out the sitches. She made a face, but otherwise took the treatment stoically. As he finished the last stitch, Libby appeared with a tray balanced perfectly on her head, laden with small sugar cookies, teapot, and enough cups and saucers for all of them. Harry and Draco sat down at Maya's feet while Sirius sat to her right. Severus, Remus, and Tonks took the other couch, and Ginny sat at Severus' feet, leaning back against him as they listened to Tirelius explain exactly what had transpired at the orphanage.

Fifty children dead or injured. It was a monstrous move for Voldemort to have made. Anger showed in every line of Severus' clenched jaw...every tightened muscle in Harry, Sirius, and Draco...every animalistic, flaring spark in the eyes of Remus and Maya. As Maya escorted Tirelius out, she waved her wand and spoke an incantation. Without warning, the entire livingroom filled with presents.

"Happy Christmas." She said, managing a faint smile. It didn't truly feel right to her without Lucius there...she hadn't celebrated a Christmas without her best friend in four years.

The room seemed empty without him.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Sirius walked up behind Maya...his Maya. She was standing in the doorway watching Harry and Draco talk quietly to each other as they played one of her muggle video games. The house was a lovely mix of muggle and magic, and Sirius had always thought that it offset his Maya's personality. He paused to wonder why he was calling her **_his_** Maya, but he didn't have much time to think about it, because she turned and looked up at him. As when he had first danced with her, so many years before, Sirius found himself drowning in the twin pools of bright milk chocolate.

"Maya..." He whispered.

"I didn't want to leave." She whispered. "I wanted, so much, to stop it all from happening...I wanted to kill Peter...to protect Lily and James myself..."

"Shh..." His lips lowered to hers, a chaste and tender kiss that lasted hours and yet ended only after a milisecond or two. "It wasn't your fault." He drew back just enough to let her eyes search his.

She was drowning. She couldn't get enough air, and she felt her knees giving way. Only the hands that he'd rested on her shoulders kept her upright, caressing her shoulders and neck as he watched her. She searched his eyes, trying to find any hint that he was playing her...that he wasn't completely serious. She saw nothing but the pure, unchanged, unconditional love that they had always shared.

Her lips rose to his, her hands sliding up his chest to his face, to his neck...into his hair. His tongue brushed her lips and they parted, granting him entrance. A battle of wills...a fight for dominance...a tender, delicate dance of tongues that ended all too soon as she drew back. "The boys..."

"Are busy..." He murmured, pressing his lips to hers. They left her lips, trailing down her chin and across her jawline to her neck, making her tilt her head back and let out a soft moan, despite herself.

"Sirius...we're in the..." She arched her back as he slid his hand under the back of her shirt and up, searching for the clasp on her bra. Finding it, he smoothly undid it and filled his hand with her breast, making her close her eyes, trying desperately to think. "...Living Room..." The last words were in a gasp as he feasted on her collarbone. Theirs was a desire that could never truly be sated for each other...the fires of it never truly dying...merely smouldering beneath the surface, waiting to burst into a fiery passion at the slightest glance...the merest touch.

"Where would you prefer to go, then?" He murmured, trying to find her breasts through the cloth of her volumnus robes.

"Our room." She drew back, this time, making them give identical whimpers of longing. His eyes never left hers as she backed slowly towards the stairs across the room. Neither of them noticed the eyes- one set of green one of gray- following their progress as he followed her, his lips searching for hers after a moment, pressing her back into the wall at the base of the stairs. She drew back again after a moment, continuing their trip upstairs despite his attempts to capture her and trap her, his desire growing with each moment that she eluded him.

Draco looked at Harry as the couple disappeared into the bedroom. "Looks like it'll be a happy Christmas for Maya, after all." He saw Harry's slight confused look and smiled faintly. "Without my dad, I wasn't sure."

"She deserves it..." Harry said, softly. "No matter what she believes, she deserves to be happy...even for only a short while."

"Yes." Draco said, quietly. "She does."


	7. Chapter 6: Avada Kedavra

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of Ms. Rowling's wonderful creations. Nor do I own any of the various songs that may be presented throughout the length of this fanfiction. The various songs will be named at the end of the fic, as well as in the chapter within which they lie.**

**A big thanks and a shout out to all of my reviewers! Thank you so much!**

_**I know already that some of you won't like the way that this story ends…however, I feel that it fits in. Honestly, I was just as surprised as some of you will be at the turn that this story took…but believe me when I say that the ending- such as it is- is much happier than it was going to be originally. I will say nothing more on that line of thought and will let you get to your reading. This, ladies and gentlemen, is your Christmas present. Seventeen pages worth of writing. Merry Christmas.**_

_**Yours,**_

_**Allison**_

**Chapter 6**

_My beloved, beloved Lucius is gone...but I move on. Sirius and I have worked past our differences, and we're dating again. I'm not sure whether to be frightened or exhillerated by this fact. Sirius could easily be used against me, as Lucius was._

_I've had a series of small heart attacks recently...Poppy says that they might be due to the stress of the war coupled with the stress of time travelling. I seem to have aged about ten years since I arrived...though Sirius doesn't tell me so. He says that I'm still as beautiful as ever...but Sirius would say anything to keep me from being irrationally angry at him. I wouldn't be angry. I would almost be glad. I don't feel much different...the only reason that I know that I've aged so quickly is because Poppy was checking me over after one of my heart attacks when she gasped, dropped her wand, and ran for the fireplace to floo for Albus in a half-amusing display of needless dramatics._

_When they turned to me, all worried-like, I seriously thought about telling them, with Lucius' old drawl, that I was ten years older than I had been the day before. Not Deaf. And then Poppy sat beside me and stroked my back all motherly-like as she began to try to explain._

_I daresay that my patience rather ran out at that moment. I'm afraid that Poppy won't be allowing me into her hospital wing for some time. And this whole time, Sirius was rolling on the ground laughing- howling, really...there's not much difference between his canine form and his human form, after all (He is reading over my shoulder as I write this. Nope, there he goes, storming off. I suppose I'd best make amends...)_

_**Maya Gurgeon**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"WHERE IS SHE?" Maya's eyes lifted from the paper that she was marking as the door to her office slammed open and an angry parent stormed in. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO CAST THE UNFORGIVABLES! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT THOSE ARE ILLEGAL!"

"Mrs. Abbot, perhaps you'd best sit down." Maya said, her voice curiously empty and courteous.

"I DON'T WANT TO SIT DOWN! I WANT AN EXPLANATION!"

"With recent events, the Headmaster and I agreed that it was best for our students to know how to protect themselves." Maya kept her voice level.

"BY MAKING THEM CAST THOSE...THOSE..." Maya rubbed her temples. _Don't go there._ She pleaded silently. _Do not go there._ "Minister Gurgeon." Mrs. Abbot said, obviously fighting to keep her temper on a leash. Alastor, who was standing in the corner, tensed. "I know that your own questionable past makes you prone to mistakes." Alastor's eyes shot to the woman in question as she grit her teeth without a word. "But that is no excuse for turning our children into Deatheater imitations. I know that, given your affair with Lucius Malfoy, this might be hard for you to understand, but..."

Maya lost it. She could sit there and keep an empty face while she was being insulted...but when Lucius' honor was questioned? The papers in the wastebasket burst into flame as she stood, the inkwells lined out on the desk shattering, one by one, as the chair turned to dust and the desk itself slammed into the wall with the force of the minister's rage. "**_SILENCE!_** Mrs. Abbot, I am aware that where you come from, Manners are a thing of the past, but where I come from, we do not insult our dead." Maya snarled, one wand coming to her hand and pointing at the woman before her. "You don't want your child to learn the Unforgivable curses? Then **_you_** can go knock on Voldemort's back door asking him to spare her the pain of this war!" A painting ran off quickly to fetch Albus. "I don't know where you get off telling me that I'm wrong for wanting a few of these children to emerge alive from this war, but BUGGER OFF!" Maya snarled.

Sirius and Albus burst in suddenly to see Maya's wand at Mrs. Abbot's throat. "Maya...she didn't mean it..." Sirius said.

"Shut up, Sirius. She insulted Lucius." Maya snarled.

"Mrs. Abbot has realized her mistake and will gladly apologize." Albus said, gently.

"I...I'm so sorry, Minister." Mrs. Abbot whispered, pale at the look in the Minister's eyes.

Maya seemed about to speak when she gave a short gasp and her eyes widened, filling with pain. Batting away Sirius' helping hand, she stumbled backwards, searching for the chair that was no longer there. Unable to find it, she stumbled to one wall, one hand on her chest and her head against the cool stone. She wasn't breathing, simply sitting there riding out the pain. Albus looked at Sirius and nodded as he and Alastor escorted Mrs. Abbot hastily from the room.

"Maya!" Sirius whispered. "For God's sake...**_breathe_**!"

As if he'd flipped a switch, the woman began fighting to take small, shaky breaths. Less than a minute later, she lifted her head from the stone wall and turned to look up at Sirius. He moved to her gently, but she shrugged him off, rubbing her chest as she walked silently out of the room and towards the Headmaster's office. Arriving, she watched impassively as the gargoyle sprang aside, allowing her to climb the steps. When she arrived in the office, Alastor was escorting Mrs. Abbot out. Clearly, Albus had assuaged her fears. She murmured an apology to the Minister, who sighed softly and stepped into the office, with Sirius close behind her.

"Another attack?" Albus asked, not bothering with the pleasantries.

"Yes, Albus." Maya said quietly. "I don't think that they are heart attacks, though. Poppy said that I'm perfectly healthy. The only thing that suggests otherwise are these attacks." She knew more, of course, than she let on. She and Severus had discussed things after her third attack, and he'd confirmed a suspicion of hers.

_**I seem to recall Lucius having a few of these same attacks, not too long before Hermione Granger disappeared.**_

_Oh?_

_**Yes...**_

He'd seemed to realize who he was speaking to, then, and had shut up...but the words had been spoken. A terrible suspicion had begun tickling at the back of her mind and she'd immediately sent an owl to Narcissa, as well as to a great many of the contacts that she'd used when researching a way to return to this time period. She had begun getting the books from them just that morning...and was going to spend the weekend- it being Friday- at her mansion, researching.

"I see." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkleless, and she had a feeling that he was sharing her suspicions. Nobody else- not even Severus- thought twice about her attacks. They all just assumed that it was the stress of being a professor and the Minister during the war combined with the stress of so much time travel. She wondered how they would take it if her suspicions were confirmed.

Her eyes moved to Sirius, who was watching her with a worried look on his face. She smiled and he moved to her, taking the smile as permission to touch her. He slid his arms around her and nuzzled her neck, pressing his face into her hair and closing his eyes. Maya looked at Albus. "Albus..." Her voice was soft. "Have you spoken with Severus since his last summons?"

"Yes..." The twinkleless eyes went- if it was possible- even more twinkleless. "It has been taken care of, Maya."

A thrill of foreboding went down her spine. "Of course, Headmaster. I'll leave things to your hands." She murmured. "I'm going to disappear for the weekend." She said, suddenly. He looked at her and arched an eyebrow and she felt Sirius stiffen. "I have something that I want to look into."

"You may, of course, come and go as you please, Minister." Albus said. "Now that we have a backup Defense Teacher...if he ever gets his face out of your hair." Sirius raised his head long enough to glare at Albus before turning his face back into Maya's neck. He drew comfort from her warmth and love. Even touching her made him feel better. It soothed her as well, which was why she allowed it in the first place.

"Thank you, Albus." She said. "I should be back in time for classes on Monday, but I may be held up slightly."

"Understandable." Albus nodded. "I do, however, wish to inform you that we seem to have a spy in our midst." He looked gravely at the couple standing before him as they looked up, their eyes widening and narrowing in turn.

"A spy?" Maya growled.

"Who would be stupid enough to turn traitor to Maya?" Sirius asked.

"I do not know." Albus admitted. "However, vital Order information is being passed to Voldemort. I have given Severus a piece of decoy information...to see."

"Severus would **_never_**..!" Hermione began.

"I seem to recall..." Albus' eyes met Maya's silently. "A young man about sixteen years ago assuring me that Peter Pettigrew would 'never,' Maya." She shut up. "It is merely a precautionary measure, my dear..."

"Yes, Albus..." Her voice was low. "I'll be going now...I'd best get to my work." She turned and swept out, leaving Sirius and Albus alone.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

_Little is known about the Sin un Alma infection and the virus that causes it. I'm sorry, Maya, but Lucius' sources couldn't dig up much more than anyone else would be able to. They all say the same thing. "Little is known about the Sin un Alma." It was so frustrating. Why are you trying to research it now? Maya...you haven't come up sick, have you?_

_Narcissa_

Maya sighed and set the parchment aside. "Batty!" When the House Elf appeared, bowing, Maya looked up from rubbing her temples. "Could you bring me some tea in here, please?" She was in her library, studying the Sin un Alma infection. Sighing gently as Batty reappeared, setting the tea down beside her, she absentmindedly poured a cup, fixed it the way she enjoyed it, and took a sip.

The cup slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor as she doubled over, her head slamming into the desk as she clutched her chest. Batty squealed with fear and Libby apparated in immediately, hurrying to her side.

When she remembered to breathe again, the attack passed fairly quickly and Maya was able to relax once more.

"Mistress?" Libby whimpered.

She lifted her head from the table, touching her forehead gingerly. "I'm okay, Libby. The attacks aren't as intense as they were a week ago." Sighing, she rubbed her chest absently as she set her work aside and stood. "I daresay I won't learn much more than we already know, anyways." She said sadly.

"Mistress Maya musn't give up!" Batty said. "Mistress must live for Master Sirius' sake!"

"I know, Batty. I know." She patted the House Elf's back. "But I don't know if I can. If my suspicions are correct...if I have Sin un Alma...then by all accounts in the past two thousand years, I'm not going to survive."

"Mistress will find a way." Libby said, confidently. "Mistress is the smartest Mistress!" This brought a faint smile to Maya's lips, and she embraced the two loyal elves before straightening.

"I'd best get back to Hogwarts. I've been away a day longer than I said I would, as it is." Maya said. "Off to the kitchen with you two...I'm okay. I'll owl you with the next date that I can come to study." She walked out of the library, sealing it off, and began the descent to the main part of the house. She had reached the second to last step when she saw a green tint in the den, a roar of flames. A wand was in each hand, a spell on her lips and on her will non-verbally when she stepped into the den...

...Only to see Draco and Harry stumble out of the flames.

"What's happened?" She was beside them in moments.

"Fighting...in the dungeons!" Harry gasped.

"Professor Black shoved us through the fire." Draco added.

"LIBBY!" The elf appeared. "Take care of these boys." She disappeared into the fire. "SEVERUS SNAPE'S OFFICE, HOGWARTS!"

She came through into chaos. Small fires had sprung up around the room...the desk had shattered, and the walls were covered in scorch marks. "No, no, no! Severus!" She paused before lifting her right-handed wand, a fire coming to her eyes. "BOMBARDA!" The door blew to pieces and she ran out of the small room. There was a body laying near the door of the potions classroom and she moved to it, using the toe one boot to flip the body over.

Both wands fell to her sides and she knelt swiftly, slipping the left wand up her sleeve and into its holder, checking for a pulse and finding none.

Her slender hand gently slid the eyelids down over the glazed over black eyes. "Rest well, beloved." Standing, she drew her left-hand wand once more and...with a flint-hard, deadly gleam in her eyes. Walking silently towards the upper levels, she continued walking along the halls. She was passing Moaning Myrtle's bathroom when she heard a soft voice. "Professor?"

Turning, she saw Ginny Weasley. "Oh, Ginny! Are you harmed?"

"No, Professor." Ginny said. "Myrtle helped keep the Death Eaters away."

"Get to the Room of Requirement, Ginny." The professor said. "Take whoever you have in that loo with you...as well as Myrtle. Have her gather the other ghosts, she'll know how, and scour the castle for any other students once you are safe inside. Instruct the Room of Requirement to let inside only those with the password 'Wyvern Hall.' Let the ghosts know the password...that way every group of students will be escorted in safely. Until I or Professor Black arrives to let you know that it is safe, I do not want you to emerge. The room will provide for you until then."

"Yes, Professor." Ginny whispered.

"Good girl." Maya caressed Ginny's cheek. "You can do this. Where is Ron?"

"I don't know...we were separated in the rush." Ginny said, tears gathering.

"Shh...none of that...you have a duty to fulfill." When the girl nodded, Maya looked around one last time. "If I see him, I'll let him know that you're safe. Now off with you...be careful, be safe." Maya turned and, in a billow of robes, continued down the hall. She hesitated at one set of intersecting halls before turning silently and moving for the Headmaster's Office.

It was as she had feared. The gargoyle lay to one side in pieces, the steps beyond singed and blackened at random points by the battle. Maya walked silently up the steps and into the office, looking grimly down at the man who was so revered by everyone. Inside, her heart was bleeding. So much death...apparently the information leak had been greater than Albus had let on.

She heard a soft sound behind her and turned to meet her boyfriend's eyes. He moved up to her left...he was a lefty, so it didn't matter. She slipped her left-hand wand into its holder and took his hand gently. "The dungeons?" He asked.

"They aren't down there." She said, grimly. He didn't ask how she knew, simply nodded. Then, wands in hand, they walked hand-in-hand out of the Headmaster's office and continued their search. "Sirius...you went to the decoy meeting didn't you?" She sensed his glance.

"Yes, I did." Guessing her next question, he continued. "I was one of the only ones who did. Dumbledore, Moody, Remus, Trevor Zabini, and I." She stopped short, her eyes widening.

_No..._

"Maya? What is it?" Sirius looked into her eyes, his own eyes worried.

"The spy..." She whispered. "It's Trevor."

"What? He's never given us a reason to doubt..." Sirius said, slowly.

"He's never given us a reason to trust, either...and all of a sudden...just after Trevor finds out for certain that Severus is a spy for Albus, both Albus and Severus come up dead? It's too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence." Sirius was frowning by now.

"Snape's dead?"

Her lips thinned. "At the doorway of his classroom. The office is torn up from fighting, as is the classroom..." She trailed off for a moment before shaking herself. "Damn it, Sirius, we don't have time for this! Come on!" She pulled her hand from his and drew her left-hand wand. The Bloody Baron floated up to her.

"We've found all of the students that we could, Professor." He said. "Professor McGonagall is leading the fight against the Deatheaters on the fourth floor."

Maya and Sirius looked at each other for a moment before they broke out running.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Five students had been killed. Three professors, including Albus and Severus, had also sacrificed their lives. Well, in Binns' case, soul. He'd taken a hex into his ghostly spirit to protect a second year girl who had tripped when running from the Death Eaters. All in all, ten deatheaters had fallen. Ironically enough, they had fallen only after Maya had burst onto the scene of the fight, looking very much as if Hell itself was behind her. Most of them were previously unknown, for the most part untested, young witches and wizards too young to have been of the last generation's and too old to have been in the new generation. They were, in short, much like the middle children.

Maya had killed Antonin Dolohov.

Trevor Zabini had escaped.

Ron Weasley had been the first dead student that they had come upon. He had died fighting...had seen his sister trying to get all of those with her to the relative safety of Myrtle's bathroom and turned to make a stand...to delay the deatheaters long enough that the other students could, possibly, get away. Beside him on either side was Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini. Slightly behind them had been Neville Longbottom, who had found in him one last burst of courage.

The Professors Sprout, Flitwick, and McGonagall had all been gravely injured. Poppy Pomfrey was trying to heal everyone at once, working around her own injuries.

The battle inside of the castle had been only a mere touch of the true battle. Thanks to Fenrir Greyback, the werewolves had also attacked. Maya was thankful, internally, that she had approached the Griffen Queen only a week or so before Lucius' death about fighting for the Light Side. As Maya was, through her animagus form, an honorary member of the Queen's Nest, the queen had granted her request.

The Forbidden forest had been torn apart by the battle between the werewolves and the griffens. Even the centaurs and the unicorns had pitched in to drive the werewolves away.

Remus Lupin had died in a fight to the death with Fenrir Greyback. The two werewolves had latched onto each other's throats and held their jaw locks, even into death. Percy had sent in the Aurors, near the end, in an answer to his Co-Minister's request for reinforcements to drive the remaining deatheaters from the halls of the great castle. He had even come himself, fighting side-by-side with Mad-Eye Moody and Tonks.

Maya had discussed things long and hard with Minerva, Percy, Alastor, and Kingsley. Sirius had been left out of the meetings, which was not a horrible thing in his mind. It meant that he was much more level-headed than Maya when she stormed into their shared quarters cursing and flinging things around wandlessly...scaring the shit out of her poor godsons, who were staying in Maya's suite so that she could be near them. None of them knew exactly what went on in these talks, save for those who were enclosed within the Headmistress' office for those long days, but they obviously weren't pretty.

The students had been left to their own devices in the Room of Requirements. Maya had scryed the room several times, and those huddled within...though worried...were all healthy and whole. They would be fine until Hogwarts was secured once more. It had been immediately taken off of the Floo Network...and while funeral preparations were going in full-swing, those within the Headmaster's office argued.

"It's too dangerous, we have to send the students home!" Percy fumed.

"What makes you think it will be safer for them at home, Minister Weasley?" Kingsley asked. "There was a traitor in the Order. That's only happened on one other time..."

"A time that was **_fatal_** for an entire family, if you'll care to remember!" Percy pointed out. Maya and Alastor stood to one side, their eyes identically hooded as they listened. They didn't say much, these two much-respected beings, but when they did...well, needless to say, people listened.

"The final battle is coming up." Minerva said. "Soon, Harry and Voldemort will have to meet. As much as I hate to do so, I must agree with Minister Weasley. The safest place for the students is their own home." Alastor and Maya exchanged a glance. Soon, it would be time to bring up their plan. The plan that they had argued over for a good hour and a half before agreeing on...the plan that would, with any luck, end the war. They'd even gone so far in their planning to breach the subject with Draco, Harry, and Sirius...as all three would be major players in the final battle.

"We don't even know when the final battle will be! Or where!" Kingsley said, frustrated. "We're completely in the dark!"

"So it's time to light a candle." Maya said, unexpectedly. Alastor stood impassively beside her. When everyone turned to her and she was certain she had their attention, she spoke with a cold finality in her voice. "Voldemort has already proven that he will not stop until he has broken us. The fact that he forced the elder Zabini to break his cover and kill both Severus and Albus proves that."

"We're doomed!" Percy began, taking a breath to begin another of his doomsaying lectures. A sharp-eyed glare from Maya shut him up before he'd even begun to draw the breath.

"Therefore...Alastor and I have discussed things with Sirius, Harry, and Draco." Maya continued as if she hadn't been disturbed. "And we have a plan..."

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya walked back into the quarters that she and Sirius shared and gave a sharp nod. "They agreed to it." She said, calmly.

"Maya?" Sirius asked, hesitantly. "Have you...have you considered what I asked you last night?"

She clenched her fist, looking down. "I have."

"And?"

"And..." She sighed, heavily. "I know someone who will be free to do it the day after Severus' funeral."

"Oh, Maya..." Sirius moved to her and took her in his arms. He couldn't believe that this wonderful woman had chosen him...again. He knew what it cost her to agree to marry him so soon after mourning the funeral of the last of her Slytherins. Severus and Lucius had been Maya's closest friends and confidants. She had been all that had separated them from the seduction of the Dark Arts. Without her...first Lucius, and then Severus caved only weeks afterwards. They had done it to try to find her, in the beginning, but soon the Dark Arts had twisted their purposes.

Severus had barely had the mental strength to go to Dumbledore to spy, months later. And now...now Maya had lost her best friends to something more final than a simple trip through time. She would not see them again. Sirius knew what it cost her to let go so readily...to be happy without one of the other men to walk her down the isle.

He knew what it cost her...because he, too, was paying that cost. Remus had been the last of the Marauders. Pudge had turned traitor, killing James. Maya had killed Pudge and now...

Now, Remus had died. The funeral for Remus was the day before the funeral for Severus. Only one in a long line of funerals from the Battle for Hogwarts, as Rita Skeeter had appropriately named it.

Maya hadn't shed a single tear. She'd held Harry, Sirius, and Draco while they cried, lending them her own strength and comforting them as best she could...but she herself had never shed a tear, even when she was alone. There would be time enough for that, later.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"Do you, Maya Elizabeth Gurgeon take this man...Sirius Lazerus Black...to be your lawfully wedded husband? In sickness and in health, Through good times and bad, so long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"Do you, Sirius Lazerus Black, take this woman...Maya Elizabeth Gurgeon...to be your lawfully wedded wife? In sickness and in halth, Through good times and bad, so long as you both shall live?"

"I do."

"The rings, please." Draco and Harry stepped forward quickly. "Sirius, place your ring on the third finger of Maya's left hand and repeat after me." When Sirius was ready, the minister smiled. "Maya Elizabeth Gurgeon, with this ring I thee wed."

Sirius' eyes met Maya's and he gave her a tender smile. "Maya Elizabeth Gurgeon, with this ring, I thee wed." He slid the slender band into place.

"Maya, place your ring on the third finger of Sirius' left hand and repeat after me." Maya smiled at Sirius. "Sirius Lazerus Black,with this ring I thee wed."

"Sirius Lazerus Black, with this ring, I thee wed." Hermione whispered.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may..." The rest of the words were ignored by Maya and Sirius both as they kissed deeply and passionately, their arms wrapped around each other and their bodies pressed together. Only when they pulled back did the preacher smile and turn to the small crowd that had come to see the wedding. "It is my pleasure, Ladies and Gentlemen, to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Sirius Black.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

It had been three weeks since Maya had proposed her plan to Minerva, Percy, and Kingsley. Two since she and Sirius had been married. She now sat silently in Poppy Pomfrey's domain, staring at the floor in worry. She hadn't had an attack in a week and a half...which truly didn't mean much, really. She wouldn't know for sure about the Sin un Alma until it was too late to do anything, but she didn't want to upset Sirius about these things.

No...she was here for an entirely different reason. She'd been sick the past few mornings, and she had a horrible feeling about it. Well...horrible and exhilerating at the same time. If her hunch was correct, then she couldn't tell Sirius until after the final battle. If she was pregnant and Minerva and Sirius knew it, they would never let her play her own role in the final battle. A role which was quite important indeed.

She looked up worriedly as Poppy walked up to her with the potion inside of which she'd placed a small urine sample from Maya. The potion was a dark blue in color. "Congratulations, Minister Black." Poppy said, quietly.

"Poppy...You know that I must ask you not to tell anyone? Not even Minerva or Sirius?" Maya said, her head down.

The mediwitch stiffened. "You know I will never betray the doctor-patient confidentiality that you demanded when you agreed to make me your primary physician, Minister." Poppy said. "But I must protest at your role in the coming battle."

Maya had picked up her cloak as she stood, and she paused just before she swung it around her shoulders. "Take a number, Poppy. I am the only one who can do this. Trevor would not meet anyone else in a duel." She swung the cloak around in a flowing wave of warm cloth, fastening it easily. "I will be careful."

As the Co-Minister walked silently out of Hogwarts' Hospital Wing, Madam Poppy Pomfrey watched her retreating back sadly. "That woman has more on her shoulders than anyone should be forced to take on in an entire lifetime." The mediwitch whispered to herself, shaking her head as she went back to work.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Maya stepped, silently and alone, onto the field that she'd chosen for the duel that would begin the final battle. Trevor was already waiting for her. She knew that there were legions of dementors and werewolves and other creatures in the woods behind Trevor on those vast plains. Just as he knew that behind her, somewhere, was the army that she had raised. What he was unaware of, however, was that she had no intensions of fighting honorably.

This man...this fool...had killed the last of her closest friends. The last of her Slytherins.

Harry and Draco watched their Godmother from the safety of the trees for a long moment before Harry turned to Draco. "Whatever happens, you have to let go and move on." Harry whispered.

"Harry..." Draco began, but he was cut off when the Green-eyed Gryffindor pressed his lips to the Blonde's.

"Promise me." Harry said, meeting the dazed silver eyes as he pulled away.

"I...Harry..."

"Draco, please." Harry said. The duel was about to begin and he wanted a promise out of Draco before he was called into it. On impulse...much like the kiss had been...Harry lifted his hand to Draco's cheek, caressing it.

"I promise." Draco whispered reluctantly, tilting his head into Harry's hand. After a moment, he leaned up and pulled the Gryffindor into a kiss, just as the first of spells was thrown on the field.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"Zabini." Maya's voice could have frozen nitrogen. "What a pleasure."

Trevor gave an obvious shudder. "You don't know the Dark Lord's power, Maya...Severus and Lucius..."

"You don't have the right to dirty their names by allowing them to roll off of your filthy tongue, Zabini." Maya said, slipping her wands into her hands silently.

"They gave up a piece of an empire. You should hear the Dark Lord's dream, Maya...it's beautiful."

"It's a fake! He tells you only what you want to hear so that you continue to serve him willingly and so that he does not have to force you to fear him to command that same loyalty!"

Trevor looked at her for a long time before sighing softly and nodding his head, seemingly resigned. "Very well. I can see that I won't convince you. Shall we duel then?" He drew his wand and stepped back. "First, my lady, we bow."

"Of course." She bowed, never taking her eyes off of him. She came out of the bow quickly.

"Stupefy!"

"Protego! Come, Zabini. This is Second Year stuff." She taunted.

The duel was an intense one...that lasted for hours but only minutes at the same time. The two duellists were fairly evenly matched...their casting speeds and reactions numbering about ten per duellist per second. So quick was their speed that when Maya cast two spells simultaneously...one non-verbal with her right wand and one verbal with her left...Trevor was caught hard by the non-verbal spell...

"Expelliarmus!" _AVADA KEDAVRA!_

Trevor vaulted into the air, spinning away from the red beam of light, just to catch the green in his back. Even before he had hit the ground, Maya was in the air, her solid black wings working with the winds as she shot back towards the woods from which she'd come. The first wave of wizards and aurors rushed out beneath her...the Griffens began flying past her towards the battle while the centaurs led the charge below, some carrying riders...albeit reluctantly.

Maya let her wings sink into flesh easily as she landed in a run, using her momentum to carry her into the bushes. "Harry!" The boy was waiting for her, running towards her. She transformed once more, as quickly as she could, and spread her wings as her godson vaulted to her back. Two beats of her strong wings later and they were soaring above the battlefield, riding the warm thermals easily as they waited for Voldemort's appearance.

"There, Maya!" Harry pointed and Maya followed his gaze. She gave a screech and paused for just a moment in her movement before spinning and diving towards the wizard who was killing those against him left and right. Her wings were folded almost flat back, her body taking on the shape of an arrow as she dove. Voldemort looked up and shot a curse at her, making her barrel-roll to the side swiftly, her wings pinned against Harry's knees all that kept him from falling.

She yanked out of her dive as Harry shouted a curse at Voldemort from her back, flying towards the Dark Lord with her hollowed claws extended. The werewolves of Voldemort's Honor Guard as well as the few wizards left of his Inner Circle turned quickly towards her, intent upon dragging her from the air. She struck once...her hollowed claws slicing into Tom Riddle's flesh and knocking him flying as she pulled out of her arching path, inky black wings working hard as she shot skywards once more, circling around as she moved and beginning to work her way in for the opportunity for another strike.

She could see Sirius duelling his way across the field to work in as backup for both herself and Harry...but that was what a lot of the griffens were doing as well. Natural Griffens had an innate resistance to curses that Maya, as a Griffen Animagus, lacked. She had planned it out with the queen that each time she pulled out of her swooping dives and climbed back to the safety of the air, a pair of griffens would flank her and ward off magical attacks from the deatheaters. They would have to trust in the centaurs and the Aurors to keep the werewolves from bringing them down. Sirius was doing fine...he had several others, including Kingsley and Alastor, with him to help him out. Her sharp eyesight then found the mass of redheads fighting back to back. Percy wasn't among them, she knew. He was at Hogwarts with Minerva McGonagall and a select few Aurors of Maya's own Personal Guard. They were the two that Hermione and Alastor had agreed were irreplacable.

Maya paused. She hadn't been able to learn telepathy quite yet, so she wasn't able to ask Harry if he was ready. He patted her neck as if he sensed her thoughts. "Come on...I'm ready." He assured her. She would have grinned had her beak been capable of the expression. Her wings flattened back once more and she turned in a dive. This time, Harry was ready. Spells from his wand paved their path straight into the ranks of the Inner Circle and Honor Guard once more. This time, Harry concentrated on keeping the werewolves at bay as Maya struck, lifting Voldemort into the air about ten feet before dropping him, straight onto the back of Ashlyn Greyback...the late Fenrir's daughter and inherited leader of the werewolves. She had been running towards Voldemort and the Honor Guard to assist.

_PULL UP!_ Maya heard the voice of the Griffen who had been training her in battle maneuvars in her mind and she obeyed without question. A green spell shot underneath her, where she'd been moments before. _Barrel Roll right!_ She immediately did so, her wings flattening just enough to keep Harry secure. She heard him shout a spell whiles he was upside down and would have, once more, grinned had she been able. She continued climbing, aware that two Griffens had floated in to flank her, warding off the spells from below. Once she was in the air, she began circling, waiting for another opportunity.

"SIRIUS!" She heard Harry cry from her back turned her head to look. Sirius was being overwhelmed. He'd been separated from Alastor and Kingsley, and was surrounded. She gave a shriek of despair and began to alter her course to move to him.

_STOP!_ The voice of her queen stopped her immediately and had her circling in despair. _You cannot abandon your own mission, Maya!_

_Sirius!_ Maya cried, letting out another shriek of helplessness as two of the griffens broke ranks and dove towards the man who had turned into a dog and was now leaping, running across the field to escape. There was a jet of green light flying towards him and Maya let out a third shriek. Harry screamed on her back and the griffens flattened their wings even closer to their bodies, driving their dive harder. They were too far away...it was too late...

The light struck the huge, solid black dog square in the back as he moved to leap over a bush and into the relative safety of the forest. Giving a yelp that could be heard from even where Maya and Harry were circling, he disappeared into the dense underbrush. Maya turned her dark, wrathful eyes to Voldemort. Harry, once again, was on the same wavelength as he saw Voldemort sway in his place. "Let's end this." He said.

With a roar of rage that had most of the Inner Circle and Honor Guard regarding her with fear, Maya dove one last time. Even as she barrel-rolled to avoid the spells thrown at them, Harry was casting spells in a fit of rage. She spun up and used her whip-like tail to break the necks of a pair of deatheaters, her hollowed claws striking two werewolves in the throat. Harry dropped two more deatheaters as she pulled up and circled once, diving back in. They decimated the ranks of the Honor Guard and Inner Circle both with each turn that they made, until Voldemort was the only one left standing. Maya pulled out one more time, circling to get up the momentum. Moving around, she dove.

Ashlyn Greyback leapt over Voldemort's shoulders to meet the Griffen, who jolted in place, catching the werewolf in the back with her hollowed claws and going down. Harry leapt free as werewolf and Griffen went down in a roar of snarles and shrieks, claws, teeth, and beak flashing, wings and tail beating. The Griffen Venom from Maya's hollowed claws was obviously taking its effect on Voldemort, who looked up only then, as if he'd just noticed Harry.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Harry shouted. Voldemort lifted his wand, but in his weakened state, he couldn't resist the spell as it hit him. He fell.

To one side, Maya's clawed hind legs shoved Ashlyn Greyback off of her and she rolled to her feet, wings melting into flesh as they folded into her back. She walked over and held out her hand to Harry, where he'd fallen to his knees. He looked up and took her hand and the two walked towards the edge of the battlefield. Draco was already running to greet them when his smile fell away and he pointed. Maya didn't hear the words on his lips, but her instincts kicked in and she shoved Harry hard aside and dove away as a green flash passed by them. Draco jumped to safety and the spell hit a tree, making the trunk explode.

"Harry! Get to the bushes!" Maya snapped, a wand in each hand as she stood to face off against the deatheaters that were advancing. "RUN!"

Trained to obey her...both as his professor and his godmother, Harry broke into a run while Draco drew his wand, covering the Gryffindor's retreat. Harry grabbed the blonde's hand on his way boy and they disappeared into the trees. Maya watched them go while defending herself, keeping the attention of the deatheaters on her. Once they were out of harm's way, she spun, spells jolting from both wands. A spell struck her in the chest, just as Alastor and Kingsley arrived to help.

She fell backwards, lying on the ground and staring up at the cloudy sky. It would soon begin to snow, she knew. The snow would blanket the world and the magical field that she had chosen for the battle would do its part. No sign that a battle had ever taken place would remain in three days' time. She was aware of Kingsley and Alastor trying to reach her, but the last of Voldemort's followers were massing towards them, keeping them back. Her limbs were sluggish...she couldn't move, and she was slightly cold.

Knowing that she couldn't comfort her friends, the witch gave a soft sigh, eyelids slowly fluttering closed over the tired chocolate-colored eyes as the world went dark.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

Upon scouring the battlefield the next day, Mediwitches and Wizards, as well as the Aurors and those who had volunteered for the task, began to search for survivors. Sirius Black's body was found fairly easily, for Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were crouched nearby. Harry's head was in Draco's lap, his green eyes unseeing and rimmed with red from his tears. Both of the boys were treated for Hypothermia and released.

Besides Ron, the Weasley Family also lost Charlie, Fred, and Arthur to the final battle. Molly was distraught and had to be checked into St. Mungos not long after, leaving Ginny to be the strong Motherly Figure in the family. Draco and Harry lived on to marry and adopt two children, one girl who looked much like Harry and a boy who was a carbon copy of Draco. They named them Lily Elizabeth and Lucius James. Minerva McGonagall took custody of Harry and Draco in the remaining months before they came of age, as she had taken custody of their shared godmother when Maya was sent spinning into the past for the greatest adventure of her young life.

Ginny Weasley grew up to marry Seamus Finnegan, eventually letting go of the rape and inheriting the Burrow from her parents upon Molly's death, four years after the final battle. They lived to fill the house once more with the laughter of children. The werewolves had, at the death of their leader, Ashlyn, turned on the deatheaters, helping to end the battle with much more ease than would have been possible otherwise. For this, they were given pardons and allowed into wizarding society once more. The staff at Hogwarts had been decimated during the final battle, and the new generation moved to fill it in. Draco and Harry were two of many of their classmates who became teachers. Draco became the Head of Slytherin and Potions Professor, while Harry was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Head of Gryffindor.

Sirius was laid to rest beside Lily. There was enough space on his other side for Maya between him and Severus. On Severus' other side was Lucius. Narcissa joined them on Lucius' other side...ten years after the war's end. Trevor Zabini and Peter Pettigrew were tossed into a random hole somewhere, giving them no more honor in death than they'd shown in life.

Maya Gurgeon's body was never found. After a year, she was assumed dead and a funeral was held, laying an empty coffin to rest between Severus and Sirius. In death, as she had been in life, Maya became a bridge between the two very different worlds that had been Slytherin and Gryffindor.

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

_My dear, dear Harry:_

_If you are reading this, then I have died. You see, I've charmed this letter (and my will) to appear exactly one year after my death. Until that time, there was a lock placed on all of my accounts to allow none but Libby and Batty to withdraw any money whatsoever...and Libby and Batty were only to withdraw money as they needed it to supply and care for Zorra Manor._

_Do not shed a tear for me, my heart. You and Draco are strong. Even if you did not have each other, I would not fear leaving you. As it is, however, you do indeed have one another and I am content. Also, if I have died, I know that my beloved Sirius is also dead...for I vowed to him that I would not leave him again. This vow included death. Thus, I can leave you all with a clear conscience. I trust that you and Draco will insure that the recipients of my will get what I have left to them?_

_I will not tell you not to miss me, for such is life. We miss those that have left us behind, spreading their wings to float up into the heavens. This is all well and good, but do not let it hinder your life. I have lived a (more or less) full life, and I must say that to die will be a great adventure...one that I willingly embark on._

_Your Loving Godmother,_

_**Maya Elizabeth Black**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

_**The Last Will and Testament of Maya Elizabeth Black**_

_The life that I leave behind is one that I will always remember. I must ask that those that I am forced to leave behind do not mourn too greatly...for with every death comes a life and vice versa. It is merely a part of nature...a mere link in the chain that begets our lives._

_It seems that I have many more worldly possessions than I first thought. Very Well. This is my Will as it stands upon the night after my marriage to one Sirius Lazerus Black._

_To my Godsons, Draco Orius Malfoy and Harold James Potter, I wish for my entire Gringotts Vault 19956 to be emptied and split equally between them. Half of each portion will go straight into a trust fund, not to be accessed until their Thirtieth Birthdays. The other half, they may do with what the will. Also, to these two young men, I leave Zorra Manor._

_To my loving husband, Sirius Lazerus Black, I leave the Hidden Manor and the treasures therein. At my death, the Hidden Manor will have been revealed. Within the Manor is a small fortune in itself, to add to the fortune in Sirius' own Gringotts Vault. In the event that Sirius cannot, for whatever the reason, claim his share of my inheritance, the Hiddem Manor and all within will go to my Godsons as well._

_To the Weasleys, I leave the contents of my Gringotts Vault 89387 to be placed in a trust fund for any children that will need robes, books, and other school supplies in the future. My Gringotts Vault 28945, small though the total contents within may be, will be an emergency fund for this family, to be drawn upon only after the Ministry has signed several forms accepting that it is an emergency. Should the time be short, and the Ministry's insufferable incompetence show itself all too clearly, a signature from Minerva McGonagall will suffice. She will know my definition of an "emergency."_

_To Hogwarts, I leave my entire Library. Harry Potter knows the password to the sealed off room within which my library rests. Many of these books are old, and I request that Madam Pince first prepare a dust-free saferoom for the books within my library prior to the removal of my library from my home._

_Do not worry...my affairs have been taken care of. The funeral has been paid for, though you will likely only be burying an empty box. It's time to let go. I've been dead for a year now, and it's truly time to let go. After all...this isn't really the end. I'll see you all again, one day._

_Remember, my dears..._

_Learn from the Past._

_Live in the Present._

_Look to the Future._

_**Maya Elizabeth Black**_

_**So mote it be.**_

**SCENEBREAKSCENEBREAKSCENEBREAK**

"She didn't **_really_** die, did she Grandmother Black?" Ten-year-Old Abigail Black asked of the ancient woman who was sitting in her easy chair, wrapped in shawls and robes in front of the fire. Abby and her eight-year-old brother, Alex, were sitting cross-legged on the floor before her, along with their cousins, Macie and Jonathon, and their second cousins, Jasmine, Christopher, and Casey. Outside, the Chicago sky poured snow and the lights strung up around the house by both their parents and grandparents glittered merrily. The tree in the corner of the room was nearly overloaded with presents to and from the ancient woman whose voice had kept the children entranced.

The faded eyes of an indistinct color peered down at the young girl who had, at first, protested that she was far too old for fairy tales. Elizabeth Black smiled gently, sitting back in her chair and revelling in the warmth of the fire. Her arthritis was acting up again, and she was thankful for the reprieve from being the active woman of One Hundred and Three Years of age that she was. "No one knows, my dear." She told her great, great granddaughter, gently. She noted that Casey, the youngest of her twice-great grandchildren at the age of six, had fallen asleep in his elder sister's lap. "Nobody found Maya's body, you see."

"But Grandmother Black..." Macie began. She was the oldest, at eleven. She was attending the Great Lakes School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time that year, so Elizabeth had decided that for their traditional Christmas Eve story, she would tell them of a young British Witch who had become very famous in her life.

"Macie..." Elizabeth's Great-Granddaughter, Alice said, sternly. Elizabeth watched quietly, letting the young woman take control. These stories tired her out, as she grew older. Sighing softly, she relaxed even further. "It's time for bed." As was tradition, the entire family was gathered in Elizabeth's Chicago Mansion for Christmas Eve. It was a tradition that she'd begun with her son, and that had carried on throughout the years since.

"Yes, Mama." Macie poked Jonathon until he was fully awake once more, and the eleven-year-old and the nine-year-old followed their mother up the stairs to bed.

"Abby, it's bedtime for you, too." James, Elizabeth's great grandson, spoke. His wife had taken her pregnant body up to bed hours before, though he'd stayed to get the children tucked into bed.

"Jasmine, Chris, you guys too." Ron, James and Alice's cousin called as his wife picked up the sleeping Casey.

"Yes, dears..." Elizabeth said, gently. "Santa, after all, cannot come unless you are all in bed." They smiled sleepily at her as they moved upstairs. Only when they were gone did Elizabeth begin to work her way into a standing position.

"Grandma, let me help..." Elizabeth's elder grandson, Andrew, said gently. He and her younger grandson, Percy, helped her up and Andrew escorted her to her room.

"Thank you, Drew." Elizabeth said, gently. She touched his cheek delicately, caressing it lovingly.

"Good night, Grandmama." Drew whispered, hugging her. She returned it, despite the protests of her arthritis, and smiled, kissing his cheek.

"Good Night, my love." Elizabeth said gently. "Kiss Vera for me."

"I will, Grandmama." Drew smiled as he left the room. Once he was gone, Elizabeth made her way to the windowseat upon which she used to sit on Christmas Eve, watching it snow. Her body barely had the energy for that now, however. Sighing gently, she pulled a long, polished wand from its place in the bedside table, lifting the wand easily and casting the spell that she'd casted for the past seventy without fail on Christmas Eve. Santa Clause was real for Chicago.

Setting the wand away, back in its place, Elizabeth looked down at the picture beside her bed. It was the only photograph that wasn't of her family that was on display in the house. In it, a group of young people were standing, laughing and waving. They were bundled up to avoid the cold, waving at the camera and wrapping their arms around each other in turns. In the background was a forest, heavy with snow, over which snow-capped mountains finished off the background, making the picture seem like something out of a fairytale. A sad smile twisted at the ancient woman's lips as she touched the simple wooden frame that encased the picture.

In the picture, a redheaded young woman with green eyes was standing by a much taller black-haired man. The man was wearing glasses that couldn't quite contain behind them the mischief in his brown eyes, and his hair was all a mess. The man and the woman would embrace, kissing, every now and then...obviously in love. To the redhead's other side was a beautiful young woman with a dark, natural tan and straight brown hair that fell down past her shoulders for about six inches. The silky brown locks had golden streaks in them where her natural blonde highlights showed through amazingly. She was holding hands with a man who was about the same height of the redhead's chosen beau, with equally black hair and brown eyes. This man's hair fell to his shoulders, however, and he watched the young brunette as if she were the only person on earth. When the woman wasn't beaming out of the picture, she was kissing him.

To the other side of the brunette and her long-haired man was a man with long, silvery platinum blonde hair that fell to his shoulders. He had an imperious look on her face, though one could see the love in his bright storm-cloud gray eyes each time he turned to kiss the equally blonde woman standing beside him, her head resting on the taller man's shoulder. Her eyes rarely left him, even when he was leaning around the man beside him to wink roguishly at the brunette woman, who laughed in reply. Sitting on a bench in front of the three couples were two more couples. In front of the pair of blondes was a man with black hair that fell to his chin, his black eyes glittering with more emotions than could be truly felt in one lifetime. Perched in his lap, her legs crossing his and her arms wrapped around the back of his neck as she rested her cheek against his was a tiny blonde woman that couldn't have been more than 5'2, standing. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with an inner fire and a love for life that only the brunette could truly match. She kissed the man whose lap she was perched in on the cheek every now and then, and he would make a face that was so obviously fake that it made her laugh openly, turning his face for a kiss that- even merely watching- made the blood in one's veins rush with passion.

Beside that couple was a second couple of a pair of Italians. Their skin-tone was the signature shade of their heritage. The man's eyes were a deep indigo, while the woman's were a brighter, lighter blue. They were well matched, and kissed at random intervals when they weren't laughing at the antics of the couple next to them. Kneeling on either side of the bench, grinning widely out at the camera, were two men. One was short and squat with an ugly, rat-like air about him. He was watching the brunette with an envious, adoring air. Kneeling opposite to him, before the redhead and her beau, was a thin, pale young man with brown hair that was cut short and styled easily. Friendly, albeit tired, brown eyes gazed out towards the camera, a gentle, wistful smile curving at his lips. Every now and then, the man standing behind him would rest a hand on his shoulder and the friends would look at each other, exchanging a smile that told the world that they knew things that the viewers didn't. All of the young people were happy...so much so that it made one long for that same type of happiness for onesself.

Elizabeth sighed and went about readying herself for bed, changing into her long, warm flannel nightgown and turning on the electric blanket that covered the bed. Sitting on the edge of the matress, she looked towards the photograph one last time and smiled, pulling the covers of the bed over her and reaching over to turn off her lamp.

Her son, Sirius Severus, had died three years before, and Elizabeth continued to expect him to be filling the house with his laughter as he kissed her cheek and sat beside her as she told her stories, as he had every christmas since Andrew and Percy had been old enough to appreciate the holiday. Before that, when it had just been the two of them...and later, Siri's wife, Natalie...he had been the one on the floor and she had sat in that same chair, smiling the same smile, full of love and tenderness. For all that her past had been so awful in spots, Elizabeth had led a full and happy life. She was a well-known part of the American Wizarding Community, she had organized and run several charities, and she had been the Headmistress of the Great Lakes School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for fifty years...up until her ninetieth birthday. Before that, she'd been the Potions Professor for twenty years, her first job after her immigration into the United States.

All in all, she wasn't displeased with her life. She had studied long and hard and sealed off an area of her soul...had been the first person in history to be a documented survivor of Sin un Alma. She had raised a wonderfully powerful son to be a great wizard. Siri had been the American Minister of Magic for many years before he had finally retired, leaving the way open for the ambitious Percy Black. Andrew was much more content in his position as Headmaster of the Great Lakes School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...up until his grandmother's retirement, he'd served as the Transfiguration Professor in the school.

James had inherited the Transfiguration position from his father once his apprenticeship in France was finished. He'd met his wife, Nicoletta, during his apprenticeship, and they had married three years later. Abigail had been born almost exactly nine months from their wedding day, making her the second oldest of Elizabeth's great great grandchildren. Alice, Andrew's second child and daughter, was a very famous journalist, who was able to travel around the world to cover some of the most bizarre and wondrous news stories.

Percy's son, Ron, had been a hard birth for Percy's late wife, Charlotte. Charlotte had died in childbirth and Percy had been unable to truly care for Ron with his budding career in the ministry, so Siri and Natalie had been the ones to raise him. Percy's career had nearly collapsed into nothingness when it was realized that he had turned into an alcoholic after his wife's death, but Elizabeth had emerged from her school and taken Percy under wing, creating a very special bond with him as she nursed him back to health and gave him her full support when he began to pursue his dreams once more. It was her support more than any doctor's bills of health that had stablized Percy's ministry career once more. Ron was the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom and spent most of his time in the London Ministry. He and his wife, Shannon, still came back to America without fail every year for Christmas...allowing their three children to know their grandparents and great great grandmother.

Yes...the ancient matriarch could honestly say that life was good.

As she drifted off to sleep, Elizabeth thought she saw a bright light in the corner of her room. Her dreams, such as they were, were filled with the bright tinkling of laughter...laughter that she recognized, though she hadn't heard it in fifty-seven years or so. It was the laughter of her Siri...her son. The laughter of a carefree child. The light in the corner of the room grew in intensity and three voices that she felt she should recognize sang out together. It wasn't as if they had just begun. It was as if they'd been singing the entire time, and were only now growing loud enough for the words to be clear.

_Oh Come, Angel Band_

_Come and around me stand_

_Oh bear me away on your snow white wings_

_To my immortal home_

_Oh bear me away on your snow white wings_

_To my immortal home_

Two of the voices trailed off, leaving only one...a feminine voice...

_I've almost reached my heavenly home_

_My spirit loudly sings_

_The holy ones behold they come_

_I hear the noise of wings..._

The two deeper, male voices chimmed back in as Elizabeth rose, looking down at hands that only hours before had been wrinkled and old. They were now the strong, shapely hands of her youth. She gasped quietly.

_Oh Come, Angel Band_

_Come and around me stand_

_Oh bear me away on your snow white wings_

_To my immortal home_

_Oh bear me away on your snow white wings_

_To my immortal home_

Elizabeth lifted her head to look at the three people waiting for her in the corner. One was a young redheaded woman, whose green eyes sparkled with delight. One was a tall, gorgeous young man with silver hair that brushed past his shoulders. The third...

The third was a man with shaggy black hair that touched his shoulders and brown eyes that sparked mischief and mayhem.

They reached for her silently, bidding her to follow.

...And she did.


End file.
